Sonic X: Clereen's Story
by Floppy600
Summary: WARNINGS: ADULT LANGUAGE and ADULT DARK THEMES and CHARACTER DEATH A strange character appears. Sonic and friends have got their hands full with collecting the chaos emeralds in the human world but who is this creature and what does this mean for their success? Will they successfully collect the chaos emeralds and get back to a normal life or will they be trapped forever?
1. Chapter 1: Newborn

"It's almost time!" The scientist found himself yelling with excitement.

"Now if I just..." the scientist continued to mumble to himself various technical thoughts and processes he could try all the while scrambling across the settings of his giant technological machine. His life's work and his biggest, most bold creation yet. A huge metal block with lots of dials, switches, buttons and many more things that we couldn't possibly understand. It seemed as if it was from another era, filling the room with its grey and complicated girth.

A little hatch opened at the side of a giant glass tube attached to the beast of a machine. The hatch revealed a protruding metal tube with a small hole at the end. The hole was only just big enough for the end of a syringe to pass through and the scientist quickly acquired the needed syringe and pushed it in with the upmost of care. A clear liquid was pushed out, the syringe removed and the hatch closed before the scientist leapt towards another monstrous machine with several monitors.

"Yes, yes. It's still responding." he reassured himself as he continued to fiddle with yet more settings. Then suddenly he stood still and walked slowly to a very important part of his machine, trying not to lose control of himself with all his encompassing joy.

"After all these years...This is it..." he stood in silence for a few seconds, in wonder of the spectacle he was about to witness. And then he pulled the final switch.

The large glass tube slowly opened and a small creature lay there. The creature was perhaps a little smaller than a human baby with short light brown fur over most of its body. It had large ears, each more than half the size of its head. It had a tiny black wet nose and hands half formed like paws with retractable claws. It had a short spike-tipped tail and lastly, its body was much like the shape of a human despite all these strange animalistic features.

The scientist waited in silence and anticipation for the defining moment he had been waiting for his whole life. Then the creature twitched. The scientist twitched with it, in surprise and anxiety. The large ears wiggled and its nose sniffed. Then the creatures eyes slowly opened and the creature saw the world for the very first time. The scientist stared attentively and with the greatest awe and concentration. The creature's eyes steadily scanned the room around it, not yet making a sound or expression. For the scientist, just starting to snap out of his awe struck stupor, his face slowly grew into a content and happy smile. But, just as his smile was about to hit its peak, then suddenly the creature's expression changed.

Its face scrunched up, making its once cute and innocent face look much less appealing. The scientists face fell quickly but before he had a chance to even wonder what was wrong, the creature's mouth opened wide and a resounding scream echoed across the enormous science lab. It didn't take long for the scientist to rush as fast as lightning over to the creature, who was still screaming at the top of its little lungs. He picked it up and examined every inch of the creature's body in earnest, throwing the creatures limbs left and right.

"What's wrong with you? Are you hurt? What happened? WHY?!" He yelled in panic and with the greatest urgency.

The creature soon quietened slightly and looked up at the scientist with its large eyes holding salty tears. And just then, the scientist heard a small noise. It sounded like rumbling. He looked down at the creature's newborn pot belly.

"Of COURSE!" He yelled with relief and happiness as it dawned on him.

"How could I have been so stupid? The nutritional syringe wasn't nearly enough. You need further nutrition!"

The creature, startled by the yelling of the foolish man, started to cry loudly once more with tears pouring down its plump cheeks. The scientist speeded over to the kitchen with the baby in toe and placed the baby down on a kitchen desk before hurrying to the fridge to pull out ingredients for a meal. He came back with all kinds of meat, fruit and vegetables creating a mountain of food balanced precariously in his arms. Food carelessly fell onto the floor as he ran and the food rolled off the desk as he planted his stash of goodies to the side of where the creature lay.

"So..." The scientist said while catching his breath.

"You have canine DNA sososo." he continued to mumble to himself as he threw his arms into the pile of food searching.

"You need to eat meat!" He exclaimed while pulling out a packet of precooked chicken breast.

The scientist was about to shove the food into the creatures mouth when he realised he had made yet another mistake. "nononononono." he mumbled pulling away from the crying creature.

"How could I forget?! You need my milk formula!" He yelled and without any hesitation he picked up the creature yet again and rushed to another room where more machinery lived.

With the press of a few buttons the machine produced a capsule of milk and he then poured it into a baby bottle ready to drink. He struggled at first, as the creature resisted this strange thing being shoved into its mouth but then it soon started suckling and everything went quiet. The scientist gave a sigh of relief as he walked away with the baby still suckling. This was the start of a long journey that neither of them could have predicted.

Months pass and the scientist was constantly making notes and observing the creature's actions. He forced puzzles, obstacles and strange situations onto the creature to find more information for his research but the creature wasn't as cooperative as he had hoped. The creature often became stressed and cried. Soon it was refusing to act any other way, every time. The scientist, being the genius he was, knew something was wrong. After a difficult day working on paper work, he found that he had no time for experiments. He also discovered that the creature seemed to behave better after this day off. So he devised a strategy to limit the times of testing to keep the creature stress free.

After more time, he discovered what things triggered certain reactions such as a sudden move or loud noise causing the creature to cry. However, he still found it difficult to understand and cooperate with the creature. That was until, the creature started to walk and interact with objects. The scientist was frustrated because the creature had not started talking perhaps as early as it should have done considering its other signs of development. The creature seemed to give all the signs that it was intelligent enough but it never did talk. However, as the creature's personality and emotions started to become more apparent, the scientist couldn't help but find himself smiling more often as he watched. He started to find spending time with the creature fun and relaxing. But it wasn't until one day when everything started to change.

The scientist had been sending his latest findings to a special science committee ever since the creature was born. However, the committee was getting impatient with him and was eager to get some indication this was real. They had demanded early on that he take the creature to them so they can see it themselves but he had told them it wasn't ready yet, it wasn't developed enough and he needed more time. But this perticuler day was hard on his emotions. He had an argument about it over the phone and he slammed the phone down on the receiver. The creature, now able to walk, stood and stared up at him looking scared. The scientist had had enough and snapped.

"Why! WHY?!" he yelled out loud. The creature started sucking its thumb and continued to stare at him.

The scientist turned around and glared at the creature. "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!" He screamed. The creature stood frozen in fear.

"WHY?! WHY CAN'T YOU TALK?! DO YOU JUST NOT FEEL LIKE IT?! ARE YOU DOING THIS ON PURPOSE?!"

The creature started to quiver and tremble in fear but it still couldn't move. "YOU LITTLE BITCH!" The scientist then lifted his hand and was about to smack the creature across the face but then he stopped and his face fell. The creature stood shaking in fear and sobbing its heart out, still too afraid to move.

"oh god..." his heart sank

"no, no, no..." he solemnly looked at the creature still trembling.

"I'm so sorry." he found himself saying as he put his arms around the creature for a hug.

He had never felt so saddened and guilty in all his life. He felt so heartbroken he felt sick and he had never meant his words so strongly as he just did then. Luckily, the creature was OK after some time to calm down but it was this that made him realise just how important this creature was to him and how big a part of his life it had become.

It was then he decided to make a vow. "I will never neglect you again". he said to the creature before tucking it into bed for the night.

Since then the observations and realisations, whether for research or not, became more complex and easier to spot. This little creature has taught him how to love after so many years of being alone. He soon felt like he needed to give it a name. It hadn't occurred to him to call it anything but an experiment number until now. 'Clereen' came to mind. It wasn't a particularly clever name. Heck! It didn't seem to be a name at all but somehow it fit. He also started to call it 'her' instead without even realising it.

He soon realised she had no possessions of her own and this made him sad. He considered buying her something special and later he soon bought Clereen a stuffed toy especially for her. It was a brown puppy with big floppy ears similar to her and she loved it. It was the first thing she could really call her own. Then at that very moment, she said her first words.

"Dwank ou". The scientist was so taken aback by this that he almost collapsed on the spot. Then he smiled the widest smile he had ever smiled and threw his arms around her.

Then without any thought he found himself saying. "I love you." into her ear as he held her tight.

Then the creature continued to say her third word. "pwofesswor!" It said excitedly as if it had wanted to say that for a very long time.

"Good girl." the scientist said as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

Suddenly Clereen looked worried and started whining anxiously. "no, I'm not sad Clereen. I'm happy." Clereen turned her head to the side in the way that indicated she didn't understand.

"I just got something in my eye sweetheart."

"OH!" Clereen said in relief before smiling and running off to play without any indication that she was about to do so. The scientist chuckled under his breath and followed to play with her.

There were many strange things the scientist discovered about Clereen as she got older. She had some very strange habits and abilities that seemed alien compared to most mammals. For example, the scientist quickly discovered that Clereen, even as a baby, ate several times her weight in food. So much so it seemed physically impossible for her to be able to fit it all inside her little body. However, her stomach seemed to expand to fit the food. A very strange nature of course and it confused the scientist to no end. This became even more miraculous when she started eating solids. When the scientist made a special meal with a whole chicken in the middle of the table to share, the scientist was shocked to find Clereen's lips somehow extending. In mere seconds she had swallowed it whole with no trouble at all.

Soon this became a regular routine as she needed more and more food to sustain her. By the age of 10, she would devour an entire tables worth of food in a single meal, even if it was piled like a mountain over the top. She even needed snacks in-between. Since the scientist loved her so much, it was hard to deny her these treats she craved but one day he decided that perhaps he was over feeding her.

He put Clereen on a diet with more vegetables and fruits and reduced the sugary, fattening snacks to almost nothing. However, this was a very sudden and foolish thing to do as Clereen found it very difficult to adjust. Clereen begged for more food or some cake or meat but the scientist denied it, thinking he was doing her some good and she would thank him in the end. However, things didn't turn out quite as he might have expected. He soon found Clereen misbehaving extremely badly, practically becoming wild and acting completely crazy. She would scream and sob and beg at his feet for more food as if she hadn't eaten at all for days. The scientist felt extremely disturbed by this behaviour but hoped that it would pass. Unfortunately it only got worse as time went on.

Suddenly he found Clereen ravaging the fridge at any chance she got. The scientist tried stopping her by punishing her but to no avail. It scared and confused him that Clereen seemed so sorry for what she was doing and yet she did it anyway as if she was desperate. Something was very very wrong. The scientist then decided he had had enough of seeing her suffer and gave her back her old diet. But he wasn't about to give up. He started to do some tests to see what could possibly be causing this strange reaction and soon he discovered something amazing. It seemed Clereen's body chemistry was completely abnormal. It seemed her body needed several times more fats, sugars and iron than a normal mammal her size. Since then, the scientist was careful to give her everything she needed to eat.

But that wasn't the only weird thing he discovered. When Clereen became 10, the scientist started to find weird things happening around her. Clereen might somehow know something without possibly being able to know and objects would sometimes fall off surfaces or break when she was nearby. This could have been considered coincidence until one day where he discovered Clereen slightly levitating above the ground for a few seconds.

He was now pretty sure he wasn't imagining these things and started yet more tests and experiments to see what was going on. Then the scientist made the most brilliant discovery. There seemed to be some sort of malfunction or mutation of the DNA with which she was made, causing her to have surreal powers. After some time training her to control these abilities, she was found to have the power to levitate and to move objects without touching them. However, the psychic abilities she seemed to have were much harder to hone and she still couldn't control them no matter how much she tried. However, it seemed these abilities strengthened when under stress and sometimes premonitions would come to her in her dreams.

More years went by and Clereen found out how to control her powers of force to create a lazer beam that can devastate almost anything. However, after using it she was left completely weak and they soon realised that perhaps this ability should only be used when absolutely necessary.

The scientist realised years ago that he didn't want to give Clereen away to anyone. However, the calls from the science committee kept coming in as they found great interest in his findings although he tried to restrict what he said. He couldn't let them know too much. He couldn't let them take her away.

However, one day he got a very different call from the science committee. A perticuler member to be precise. This member of the committee told the scientist that he had a perticuler interest in this creature and his findings and tried to encourage him to make a deal with him. This other scientist wanted to know more and to partner with him on this project. However, the scientist knew very well that he didn't want this stranger to get involved with his beloved Clereen and so he kindly refused. But the man on the phone had other plans. He wasn't about to take no as an answer. The man then started to make threats, saying he would tell the committee that Clereen's powers were devastating and dangerous. This was bad. If the authorities found out about her potential power they could capture her and even kill her for the safety of the country.

The scientist distraught by this threat didn't know what to do so he quickly hung up the phone. He sat with his hands over his face in despair. Clereen came wandering in with her slight waddling walk as usual and quickly figured out what needed to be done. She then snuggled up to the scientist with her much loved puppy toy in hand.

"Don't cry professor." she said as she tried to snuggle closer.

Despite now being 13, Clereen had never quite grasped how to talk properly and still had a little lisp when she spoke. The scientist smiled with tears in his eyes and threw his arms around her.

"Don't worry Clereen. Everything is going to be fine. I'll protect you" he whispered in her ear.

Months went by without any further calls or threats. The scientist had hoped that perhaps the man on the phone had lost interest in the subject after he didn't cooperate. However, it did worry him a little that there were also no calls from the science committee anymore.

Then one day, out of the blue, there was a knock on the door. This was a surprise as the scientist and Clereen lived in a secluded spot with a thick forest at one side and a steep cliff on the other. The scientist never had any relatives round even at Christmas and they very rarely had visitors for official purposes. However, the scientist had a bad feeling about this. He just knew that something wasn't right.

Then a voice yelled through the door. "Let us in. This is an army official!".

He yelled to Clereen seconds after he heard this. "Clereen! RUN! HIDE!". Clereen started to run and she had just got to a dark corner of the next room when the door slammed open.

A fat man stood dominantly in the door way, blocking the light of the bright sun behind him. The soldiers quickly rushed inside and surrounded the scientist holding an assortment of military guns and weapons in their hands.

"I told you I would find you. You should have taken the offer while you had the chance." the fat man said as he stood in front of the scientist.

"so...where is she?".

The scientist stood frozen and said nothing.

"are you going to cooperate or am I going to have to take action?"

"I'd rather die first." the scientist finally said with confidence. The scientist quickly turned his head towards Clereen and opened his mouth to speak but before a single breath could leave his mouth...

BANG!

The room fell eerily silent for what seemed like hours as the scientist limp body fell to the ground. A small wave of smoke flowed out of the fat man's pistol. Clereen looked through a small gap from the open door of the room she had run into. Her heart froze and it felt like time itself had stopped. Her whole world, destroyed with one gun shot.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Clereen screamed at the top of her lungs as she crumbled to her knees, tears pouring down her face.

But before she could truly grieve, the commander of the soldiers shouted out. "FIND HER!".

Clereen had no time to carry on crying. She had to think fast. That scream meant they knew exactly where she was. She stepped back and slipped into the shadows before the soldiers arrived. The soldiers looked in every corner and drawer but couldn't find her. People often don't look up. Clereen waited levitating in the dark corner of the room's roof. The building wasn't well lit so there were plenty of shadows to hide in. Before long the soldiers had exhausted all the ground level hiding spots and the commander grew impatient. A soldier discovered an open window.

"It escaped! Get back to the city. We'll be ready for it" the commander ordered the soldiers.

The soldiers left as quickly as they came and soon it was so quiet it seemed as though it had never happened. But the evidence was there. Clereen came down from her hiding place and slowly walked towards the body of the only family she had ever known.

"Daddy." Clereen managed to muster before collapsing over his bloody body and sobbing uncontrollably.

Hours passed and then her crying slowed. She felt like she had just awoken from a dream as it suddenly dawned on her the situation she was in.

"Oh no! OH NO!" she fussed to herself.

"what am I going to do?" her stomach growled at her for the usual snack time. This made her think.

"What am I going to eat?!" she exclaimed. These thoughts soon turned into panic.

"There is still food in the fridge. I can manage. I can manage." she whined to herself becoming more and more frantic as she tried to reassure herself.

Without much thought she went to the kitchen and ate everything in the fridge. This helped to calm her down until she remembered there was raw meat in there. In her panic she hadn't realised. Clereen's stomach being strong and good at solving almost any digestion problem immediately reacted. A few painful groans later the raw food came out the way it came and was out of her system before anything serious happened. Everything was fine but this didn't help how sick she felt now. Clereen continued to cry for another 15 minutes or so before her stomach had recovered and wanted more food. This time she was calmer and she searched for any precooked food she could eat. Although the fridge was bigger than most, Clereen ate so much that there was a whole storage room needed to harbour the food she needed for even a single week.

Clereen searched carefully and eventually found enough to satisfy her hunger. However, there wasn't much left as most was raw and needed to be cooked. It looked like so much and yet it was so little. Clereen had never been taught to cook herself. She was helpless on her own. A part of Clereen knew this to be true but she couldn't accept it. So she pretended everything was fine, she went on with her usual fun activities and pretended the scientist she called 'professor' was out shopping or on holiday. This went on for half a week until she was extremely weak with hunger as the food had ran out.

Although it may seem like a short time to you, Clereen's unique body meant that she took more nutrients so her fat soon depleted to almost nothing. She found herself barely able to walk anymore as she lay slumped over the dead and rotting body of the closest thing she had to a father. She had finally stopped pretending and had started to accept the fact that she might die next to him. Just then, a voice called to her.

"Clereen, sweetheart." Clereen looked up from the body and towards the sound. There stood a shape of a man. The shape was faint from her weakness and heavy eyes but she still recognised it.

"Professor?" she said weakly.

"is that you?"

The figure leaned over to her and lay his hand on her back. Although it was faint, she was sure she felt the hand touch her and it made her heart glow with joy.

"I love you professor." she said under her breath as she found herself growing weaker.

But then to her surprise, the figure grabbed her hand and lifted her up. Her legs shaked violently and she soon fell over but the figure lifted her up again and this time she stood just barely.

The figure then leaned over, gently touched her cheeks and said "You must live, Clereen. Don't let it end like this".

"But." Clereen wanted to cry but she had no tears left.

"I-I can't." she whined but the figure just stroked her head and continued.

"Do you think I want to see you die like this?" Clereen looked up at him with surprise.

"I..." Clereen's heart sank. She had been selfish this whole time and never thought of what he wanted. She felt overwhelmed with guilt.

"I'm sorry." she whined faintly before again trying to cry but failing to produce tears.

"Oh, don't be sorry." the figure said suddenly sounding concerned and worried.

"It's not your fault. This isn't your fault." Clereen just stared at him, no longer knowing what to say.

"go Clereen. Go outside."

"but b-but." Clereen whined in confusion and tiredness. The thought scared her. Apart from being in front of the building for a few hours to play and get some fresh air she had never really been outside.

"Don't sleep. Walk outside Clereen. You will be OK. I will protect you."

Clereen remembered those words, the promise he made to her all those years ago, and she finally understood.

"Yes, professor." she said.

"I will try one more time." then she continued to walk outside. The weather was windy and cold and she fell over many times but she kept getting up and walking. A little more, a little more, trudging through the harsh autumn winds and wet rain.

She got to the first tree of the forest that stood not far from the building she used to call home, when her strength faded. With the very last bit of power she had left in her body she smiled. She tried and she knew daddy was waiting for her. She slowly closed her eyes and accepted her fate. At that moment she fell asleep and everything went black. The sounds of the harsh wind and the feeling of the sharp scraping rain drifted away along with her consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2: A New Friend

Slowly, Clereen opened her eyes or at least she tried to. She had no idea what to expect but she felt like she was being lifted in the air. But this wasn't a gentle lift. She felt as if she was being carried around by a strong beast with her limp arms swaying left and right and then she was sure of it when she started to feel the rough skin breathing up and down on her chin. She was still very weak and she couldn't open her eyes so she lay and waited for wherever fate was going to take her. Then she soon felt herself being taken away from the shoulder of this beast and laid gently on the ground. Then she was surprised as she was met with something very familiar. Food. A spoonful of beans was fed into her mouth as she lay.

She may have been weak but she was determined to eat any food she had been given. She tried to chew but most of it spilled out of her mouth. She felt like crying. She was so close to being fed and yet so far away. Another spoonful of beans entered her mouth. She tried to chew with not much success. Luckily beans don't need much chewing but she struggled to swallow. A strong hand gently pushed her throat and she managed to swallow. Simple beans had never tasted so good. She continued to be fed with beans several more times until it then stopped.

Clereen found herself in a panic. "More! Please! I need more!" She thought to herself and she tried her best to whine in earnest, desperately trying to get the feeders attention since she was too weak to form words.

"You've already eaten 3 cans. Haven't you had enough yet?" she heard like a voice faint in the distance. She continued to try and whine even harder now she heard a sign of a person being there. The stranger sighed and then proceeded to feed her more beans.

Later he stopped again and she tried whining. "I need some to, you know!" the voice exclaimed. Clereen felt like she had been scolded and then stayed quiet. She definitely didn't want to upset the only person who was helping her.

"humpf." the stranger mumbled to himself and then everything went quiet.

Clereen really wanted to say hello. To thank this stranger for their kindness but she just couldn't keep her eyes open no matter how hard she tried.

"Stop that! Just rest OK?" the voice of the stranger said. This time the stranger sounded gentler than before. Clereen thought that maybe the stranger had forgiven her and decided to leave it at that and take his advice. She rested her eyes and tried to relax. She must have fallen asleep because she was suddenly startled from her peaceful rest by someone shaking her.

"Wake up! You want some food don't ya?" Clereen's ears perked up at the sound of that special word and she psyched herself up, ready to be fed.

This time it was chicken soup seeming to be of the canned variety. Clereen knew her food well and could even recognise the brand. Why does this person have so much canned food she wondered. Then she realised. If she had the power to wonder then she was feeling a little better. She proceeded to try opening her eyes and this time it wasn't so hard but her sight was still blurry and faint.

"I told you, don't strain yourself for god sake!" the stranger scolded her again. Clereen felt the need to cry. It hurt to be scolded and she wasn't in the best situation to control her emotions.

She ended up sobbing a little at that moment but the stranger said nothing. After a while her tears stopped and she again was lifted off the ground as she was still too weak to walk. Where was this stranger taking her? Who was this person? Her head hurt when she thought too much so she decided to call it a day and rested once more.

Third time woken up for feeding she felt even better and she immediately opened her eyes to see the spoon when she smelt the food coming. Suddenly she was taken aback by the first clear vision of her saviour. It was a shock to be sure as this creature was in fact not a person but an animal of some sort like she had never seen before except for herself.

It seemed like a... well she wasn't sure what it was. It was big and red for sure with red snake like hair with pointing tips. It's hands were big and white in the shape of a hand but without definable fingers since it seemed to be wearing gloves to obscure them. These hands also had spikes on the knuckles. It even had white markings on its chest. She also got the feeling it was male considering its voice and body figure similar to a small human male but he certainly wasn't human.

However, as soon as he noticed her looking straight at him he jumped back with surprise. "Don't look at me like that!" he said in panic as he shuffled around trying to look anywhere other than directly at her face.

Clereen was upset for being scolded again and so quickly panicked and said. "oh OK sorry!" before lying back down again. That's when she realised. She talked! She moved!

Before she could truly comprehend what had just happened the stranger spoke. "Guess you're feeling better then?" Clereen squealed with excitement and tried to get up and dance before quickly collapsing to the floor.

"You're not fixed yet don't be stupid!" he yelled frantically before quickly looking Clereen over and then leaning back.

"sorry." Clereen said faintly, feeling very sad and disappointed.

"So..." He said with a sigh.

"Who are you and what happened to you? What were you doing collapsed at the edge of the forest? Don't you know it's dangerous to travel around here unless you know what you're doing?" Clereen looked around. Sure enough, they were in the forest. She hadn't even noticed yet.

Clereen suddenly felt like she couldn't speak. She felt a little scared of this stranger who kept scolding her for reasons she couldn't quite understand or control. She thought if she said anything he might shout at her again and she really didn't want that.

After a while of silence the male creature gave a deep sigh and spoke some more. "I'm Knuckles. Common, at least tell me your name."

"Clereen." she said quietly.

"Cler-what?"

"Clereen."

"err. Sorry but I think you made a mistake there. Do you mean Clarisse?"

"no." Clereen said feeling more annoyed than she expected. No-one had ever said her name wrong before and she didn't like it.

"Alright, alright." Clereen realised by his tone that he had noticed she was annoyed with him. Then she felt guilty.

"sorry." she said shyly and quietly.

She had never expected to have such trouble talking to someone. It was so easy to talk to her 'professor' but she found herself feeling nervous and scared when around this stranger.

"you don't need to apologise." Knuckles said sounding again more gentle than before. This change of heart just confused Clereen more than anything else. Was he angry or not? Does he like me or not? All this thinking made her head spin and she soon felt tired again.

"Hey." Knuckles said quietly as he sat up.

"You need something to eat don't you?" Clereen felt too tired to bother talking anymore.

Knuckles paused for a response but when he got none he responded with a faint "humpf." before rummaging inside a large potato sack. From this he pulled out a few cans of oxtail soup, a can opener and a spoon. Then he wandered over to Clereen and carefully sat her up against a tree. After eating there was an awkward silence as neither knew what to say to each other.

But then Clereen broke the silence. "Thank you." she said shyly and quietly before falling silent again. Knuckles shuffled uncomfortably and didn't say a word.

Then he stood up. "we got to go now." Clereen looked up at him with confusion.

"Let's go." Knuckles said as he swiftly lifted Clereen into the air and hung her over his shoulder, before walking away.

After a while Clereen plucked the courage to ask the question on her mind "Where are we going?" Clereen asked.

"To the city, of course" Clereen suddenly felt her heart skip a beat.

"NOO!" she screamed without thinking.

"Woah, woah, what?" Knuckles exclaimed in surprise. Clereen looked around nervously trying to control her feelings.

She remembered it like it was crystal clear, in front of her at that very moment. The bang of the gun. The deaf deifying scream she made.

The army men searching for her "It escaped! Get back to the city. We'll be ready for it" the words of the commander as they left burnt into her mind. Of course, it hadn't been too long ago and there was no way she could have got over something that horrible so easily but she had never experienced any feelings like this before.

Slash put her down and was taken aback by the sheer terror on her face. "Clereen. CLEREEN!" Knuckles shook her by the shoulders trying to rouse her from her world of fear she was trapped in but to no avail.

"CLEREEN!" He yelled at the top of his voice and then slapped her across the face. Clereen snapped out of it as fast as she went in.

She felt as if she had suddenly awoken in another world and she looked about her in confusion for a few seconds before seeing Knuckles looking very concerned. Then it hit her. She couldn't stop crying. Knuckles shuffled around, trying to look away and ignore her cries but with great difficulty. Then he proceeded to lift her up and carry her like before without saying a word.

After an hour or so Clereen calmed down and she was quiet for a while, just thinking. She felt bad for making Knuckles worry, even though she still wasn't sure what happened.

"sorry about that thing earlier" she said digging some dirt out of her claws.

"That's OK" Knuckles replied after a pause just long enough to make her wonder if he was going to respond. She noticed he seemed to do that a lot.

Then Clereen suddenly noticed a sickly feeling of hunger in her stomach. She had lost all feeling a while ago but it seems it has come back to bite her. Soon after noticing she jumped from an aggressive roar from her insides. The sound was very long and just as uncomfortable as it sounded. Just when she thought she got over it another one just as bad hit her a few minutes afterwards.

"Oh, God" she said to herself in despair. She started to cry again

"it hurts" she said as tears poured down her face.

Knuckles sighed and continued to walk. Clereen was in too much pain to really think so hours passed. Then Knuckles put her down

"about time to eat again, Clereen". Clereen looked up eagerly.

"yes, please" she said weakly. Knuckles shuffled around uncomfortably when he noticed her shaking violently

"you, you cold?" Knuckles asked but he knew that wasn't the case at all.

Clereen looked down at her hands. They were shaking like crazy. Her stomach roared again with the upmost intensity and pain. Knuckles started to move quickly getting some food out, the can opener and spoon. Clereen continued to sob from the pain. Knuckles opened the can as fast as possible and shoved the spoon into her mouth.

Clereen felt so hungry it seemed to hurt even more to eat and the food burned her throat on the way down. She couldn't have it in small doses. She needed more. She needed it all, NOW. That was all she could think. Knuckles looked at Clereen anxiously and then jumped back in shock when she pulled her face up from its hanging position. After that what happened was a blur in Clereen's mind. All she remembered was when she suddenly woke up to the sound of Knuckles yelling.

"What have you done?!" He screamed in panic.

"Wha-wha-what?!" Clereen responded wondering what on earth had happened. She felt like she just woke up from fainting and her head hurt.

Clereen looked about her to see what the danger was and noticed she was covered in soup and bean cans. All empty. She looked at the potato bag and quickly peaked in to see nothing but more empty cans. Then she realised her lips hurt. She touched it and blood was on her hands. Then she realised the can lids were all ripped apart and not cleanly opened like with the can opener.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Knuckles screamed at her. Clereen turned around to look at him. For the first time, he seemed scared and shaken.

"That food was for both of us. Are you nuts? What ARE you?!" What had she done? She had no idea. She heard a little gurgle and she looked down at her belly. It was bulging full and digesting happily. This was all too much to take in. Clereen screamed in panic and starting crying desperately.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry" Clereen said over and over and over. Knuckles just sat in the corner shuffling around uncomfortably. How can you react to something like this? However, after a few minutes Knuckles made a move and leapt over to her and threw his arms around her.

"It's OK. It's OK. Don't freak out. You're OK" Knuckles repeated comforting words to Clereen until she calmed down. Clereen eventually stopped crying and there was an awkward silence as they both sat with Clereen curled in Knuckles' lap.

"Common, get up" Knuckles said at long last and lifted her up by the shoulders to sit upright.

"I'm so sorry. I-I don't know what happened" Clereen said.

"You don't know?!" Knuckles said in surprise.

"no" Clereen looked up at Knuckles with all seriousness

"what happened? Did I eat all the food?" Knuckles shuffled around uncomfortably before then standing up quickly and saying

"well we better go" and lifting Clereen over his shoulder.

"Tell me what happened!" Clereen exclaimed but Knuckles didn't answer.

"I guess maybe he thinks it's better if I don't know" Clereen thought to herself as she swung on his shoulder. Some time passed in silence and Clereen found herself feeling much better after a quick nap and rather bored. Then she realised she hadn't had a proper conversation with Knuckles yet. She didn't know anything about him. She wasn't sure whether he would respond but it's worth a shot so she fired a question.

"so, what are you doing here?" after a little silence, Knuckles answered

"saving you". Clereen noticed he was avoiding the question.

"No, what were you doing here in the first place?" Clereen urged.

"I just travel around these kinds of places. Why is my business. Not yours" Knuckles said with a little distain. Now Clereen was feeling much better she didn't feel insecure anymore so she continued talking.

"Where do you come from then?" she asked. Knuckles waited a while before answering.

"A big island in the sky." He paused for a while and looked up in a sort of nostalgic wonder before continuing

"It's a wonderful place filled with a huge jungle. There are even ancient crypts, tombs and other structures there" Clereen smiled. She could tell he rather liked this place and it was nice to hear him saying something nice for once. Then a question came to mind.

"Why don't you go back there?"

"Because I'm stuck here!" Knuckles said responding faster than usual.

"so you're only travelling because you're lost?" Suddenly Knuckles pulled Clereen off his shoulder and glared at her. Clereen was rather stunned by this and felt rather scared but she said nothing. Then he sighed and put her down in front of him.

"if you feel so good why don't you walk yourself?".

Clereen looked down and realised she was indeed standing on her own. She squealed with excitement before falling flat on her face seconds after by tripping over a twig. Knuckles looked back at her just long enough to see her look back with her mud covered face before turning and continuing to walk. Clereen stood up and brushed herself off before bouncing after him cheerily as a spring rabbit.

"So where are we going?" Clereen asked.

"You already asked me that" Knuckles responded.

"I did?" Clereen asked with confusion.

"Does it really matter so much?" Knuckles asked.

"well, yes!" Clereen said astounded by such a silly question.

"Why would you go anywhere unless you knew where you are going?" Clereen said.

"You're not so dumb as you look then" Knuckles replied.

"Do I look dumb?" Clereen inquired curiously. Knuckles looked back at Clereen and she paused on the spot.

"You are a weird creature" Knuckles said before turning and continuing his walk.

"So are you!" Clereen said cheerfully without consideration.

"humpf" Knuckles said under his breath. Another hour passed until Clereens legs started getting tired.

"How big IS this forest!" Clereen whined.

"Can we sit down?"

"We just sat down half an hour ago"

"awwwww" Clereen whinned.

"I'm tired" she complained. Knuckles didn't respond.

Then suddenly Clereen noticed her stomach was rumbling again. This time she felt extremely anxious about it. It had caused so much trouble before.

"Please don't make a sound" she told herself under her breath. However, Clereen's stomach being the way it was there was no chance of it being quiet. Her stomach roared loudly before long.

Knuckles turned around "you've got to be kidding me!" Clereen hung her head in shame. Knuckles just sighed and continued walking. Clereen felt upset because she was sure she had made him mad again.

"I can't help it" she said in a wobbly voice. Knuckles said nothing.

"I'm sorry" she said. Knuckles said nothing. Clereen felt like crying again.

She felt pathetic for crying so much. She felt like an absolute coward. So she just hung her head in shame and stayed quiet. That was until she started panting. She really wasn't used to so much exercise and it was really starting to get to her. Knuckles kept walking for little before stopping at a clearing

"we can rest here"

"OH, THANK GOD!" Clereen exclaimed before slumping to the ground.

Clereen then rested for a while feeling half unconscious she was so tired before sitting up and looking over at Knuckles.

"I have never seen you eat. Do you like canned soup? You have a lot of it" Clereen said trying to strike conversation.

"I used to" Knuckles replied bitterly

"oh" Clereen remembered. She shuffled her feet about. That had stopped the conversation dead. Her stomach roared again. It had been doing that constantly for a while now so she tried to ignore it. Then she was confused

"wait...you used to like soup or you used to own soup?" Knuckles looked over at Clereen with a stunned expression.

"What?" Clereen responded confused. Knuckles sighed and shook his head before staring at the tree leaves swaying in the gentle wind that day.

Clereen also looked at the leaves to get an idea for what he was looking at them for. Then she noticed these trees looked different from the trees she had usually seen at the edges of the forest

"what tree is this?" she asked curiously.

"are you serious? You have never seen an Oak tree before?"

"Nope!" Clereen said in such a spritely way it seems she was proud of it.

"I've seen it on TV! But not in real life" Clereen said as played with her feet by tapping them together.

"How often have you been away from home?" Knuckles asked sounded actually rather intrigued now.

"never"

"Wait, what?!" Knuckles said in disbelief. Clereen looked over at Knuckles' confused face.

"what?" she exclaimed in confusion.

"you know most people leave their house often right?"

"yep. In movies and stuff they do"

"Have you ever learned something without the TV?"

"yeah. My da..." Clereen went quiet. She had forgotten. Then it hit her again. She started to sob.

"not again" Knuckles said sighing. He came closer and sat next to her.

"You still haven't told me what happened. Do you think you can tell me now?" Clereen looked up at Knuckles and he seemed to have a kinder face than usual. Her stomach roared tremendously and she found it hard to ignore. She gripped her belly as it yelled at her. Then she wiped her eyes, sniffed and started to explain

"I live with the professor, in a big building at the edge of the forest. He-h-he" Clereen struggled to stop crying so she could speak

"He made me and he loved me and I lived with him until you found me. One day this fat nasty man" Clereen's lip quivered with those words, knowing what she had to say next.

"came to the door...and he-h-he...shot him"

"WHAT?!" Knuckles suddenly interrupted with shock and surprise.

"OK, OK. I think you've had enough. You're shaking again" It was true Clereen had started shaking all over. She didn't want to think about it anymore. Her stomach continued to growl loudly and they both tried to ignore it but it wasn't easy. Knuckles looked at the sky before speaking

"You know why I can't go home? The truth is, I don't know what happened. One minute I was at home, the next I appeared here. There was a big flash and...here I am" Clereen looked at Knuckles intrigued by this new line of conversation.

"wow" Clereen said in wonder of this idea.

"like magic?" Clereen inquired.

"I guess so" Knuckles said. Suddenly Clereen got the feeling Knuckles was upset and decided to change the subject.

"Chocolate!" Clereen shouted at random, making Knuckles jump.

"do you like chocolate?" Knuckles found himself chuckling

"You're not good at talking to people are you?"

"not really" Clereen responded.

"You're the first person I have ever talked to other than the professor".

"woah" Knuckles said in amazement

"So what happened to your mother or should I not ask?"

"I never had one" Knuckles turned to Clereen in surprise yet again stunned by this answer

"errr. Clereen. You have to have had a mother at some point. Otherwise you wouldn't have been born."

"I told you. The professor made me"

"so what, did he magically make you with a huge machine or something?" Knuckles said sarcastically.

"yes!" Clereen responded cheerfully.

"WHAT?!" Knuckles said yet again. Her stomach roared.

"he said he made me with DNA and a mutation somewhere in the process caused me to have abnormal properties!" Clereen said in a completely too cheery way to say such a thing.

"Do you even know what that means?" Knuckles asked

"It means I was made by science magic but I was special so now I do weird things"

"I guess that explains what happened earlier" Knuckles said wondering to himself

"and that" he said pointing at her belly. It roared in response and she shuffled uncomfortably, trying not to look at him

"what happened earlier?" she asked

"You ate all the cans of food remember?"

"yeah"

"well you were swallowing amounts several times the size of your stomach or something and your lips stretched as you were trying to eat the potato bag to. You just went crazy"

"oh" Clereen felt guilty and hung her head in shame.

"forget about it. What's done is done" Knuckles said before getting up again and he held his hand out to Clereen.

"we should be going again now" Clereen held her growling stomach one more time then nodded, smiled and took his hand to get up again. However, Clereen noticed her legs were feeling a little shaky.

Knuckles noticed it to "You feeling OK?" Clereen wasn't sure. Then her stomach announced its presence yet again.

Knuckles sighed "you need to eat?" Clereen nodded her head and hung it in shame yet again. She felt awful for even remotely suggesting needing more from him, especially when it was her fault there was no more food for him or her.

"We should reach the edge of the forest in another day or so" Knuckles said as he looked out to the forest ahead. Clereen was scared. She was going to starve all over again. There was no way she would last that long with her demanding body.

"Knuckles?" Knuckles turned around to look at Clereen again and soon realised she wasn't happy.

"I'm scared" Clereen said. Knuckles shuffled uncomfortably. Her stomach growled like a volcano.

Then Clereen jumped at Knuckles and threw her arms around him. "I'm going to die!" she said sobbing into his chest. Knuckles tried his hardest to look away but he couldn't. He then put his arms on her back and stroked her head a bit. Clereen noticed it was just like the way her father used to stroke her when she cried which only made her cry more.

"You...You're not going to die, Clereen. You'll be fine" Knuckles tried to reassure her

"Knuckles?" Clereen asked between weeping

"How much do people normally eat?"

"Err, one of those cans of soup" her stomach roared again

"Oh, god!" Clereen cried. Knuckles didn't know what to say so he said nothing

"You don't understand. I need more"

"I know" said Knuckles sounding worried

"I need three times my own body weight per meal"

"WHAT?!" Knuckles exclaimed again.

"You're joking. Please tell me you're joking!" Knuckles said while holding Clereen in front of him. Clereen looked at him with a forlorn expression

"I'm going to die" she said before sobbing further.

"Why, Clereen? Tell me why" Clereen looked up and explained

"I need more fats and sugars and iron in my diet. If I don't eat more then I get sick and starve. The professor put me on a diet before and I got sick. That's when he found out" Knuckles looked back at her, shocked at what he was hearing.

"I don't know what to say to you anymore" Knuckles said as if he felt ashamed of it. Clereen just continued to sob into his chest

"You're not going to die, Clereen" He said after a long pause

"I won't let you". Clereen looked up in surprise. No-one had ever said something like that to her before but something felt special about it.

"We better hurry to the city then!" Knuckles exclaimed before lifting her up and running off into the distance. Clereen smiled and closed her eyes. She would rest until they got there.


	3. Chapter 3: Mansion of a Rich Girl

"Oh man, oh man oh man oh man!" a blue creature exclaimed in panic to himself. This creature resembled a hedgehog with large blue spikes coming from his back and head like hair. It was yet another creature with a human form and even more apparent with his fat pot belly.

"What happened? Where am I?" he fussed as he stepped back and away from all the strange unfamiliar sights around him. He jumped at every sound he heard, not realising this was actually getting him closer to the danger he was trying to avoid. Suddenly he heard a loud honk of a horn and he turned just in time to jump away from a truck careening towards him.

"I can't stay here" he said to himself.

"I gotta find Tails!" just then the creature found himself encased in a net.

"gotcha!" yelled the young rookie police officer

"my first job is gonna be a snap!" he said to himself. However, it seemed he had spoken too soon as the creature yelled like crazy, wiggling, twisting and squirming until he found his way out of the net. As soon as he was out he bounced away as fast as he could.

"No no NO! Come back!" The police officer yelled in panic while trying to chase the creature down. However, the creature was too fast for him. He chased the police officer into the tight, dark alley ways where he soon lost him. The creature gave a sigh of relief before wandering off anxiously round the back of the city and into the distance away from all the hustle and bustle.

"If I don't find Tails, We'll be done for".

The creature then proceeded to wander aimlessly heading to where it was quieter and in a blur of blue he was gone into the distance. He quickly came upon the rich district of the city where the houses where larger, farther apart and rather peaceful compared to the city. Just when he started to relax and gave a sigh of relief he slipped and fell into a pool of water. He had carelessly wandered into the garden of a large mansion with a huge swimming pool in front.

The creature flailed about screaming "I can't swim! I can't swim!". Just then, a young girl leapt into the pool and pulled him out as fast as he fell in. This girl was around the age of 16 and had short blond hair with rough edges. She wore a loose rose pink jacket with a plain white T-shirt underneath and rose pink trousers with white pulling ropes. She even went barefoot. He coughed and spluttered, desperately gasping for breath and the girl slapped him on the back. So much so he had to tell her to stop.

"You alright?" the girl asked.

"Yeah, I'm OK" the creature replied before slowly turning his head to face her only to start running the other way.

"W-Wait!" the girl called after him while chasing him down

"Leave me alone. Go away! Stranger danger!" he yelled as he ran further away. Soon the girl stopped chasing as she realised he was running around in circles. Then he stopped and looked around before squealing in fear once more once he saw her again and hiding in a little dark nook between the building fittings. Then it went quiet. The girl walked over to him until she was close enough to hear his panicked whispering to himself.

She tried again "You don't need to run away. I was just trying to help you"

"That's what they all say" the creature quickly said in response.

"No, really." The girl paused and thought for a minute before speaking again. "Are you hungry?" This topic caught his interest and he turned to listen.

"I can make you a sandwich" the girl said in a kind and gentle tone

"Do you have snacks?" The creature responded looking a little brighter.

"yes, I have lots of snacks. Do you like snacks?"

"Yeah" The creature replied shyly.

"What kind of snacks do you like?"

"burgers and chips!" He said now starting to sound excited.

"that's not a snack!" The girl exclaimed.

"That's what Tails always tells me" he said sounding rather disappointed.

"Well, if you really want it, I can get you some burger and chips. Does that sound good?"

The creature licked its lips "YES YES YES!" he yelled before trying to get out of the space.

However, it seemed his pot belly had got him stuck. The girl didn't need to be told anything as she quickly got to work pulling him out. He came out very easily when the girl spun him around to a different position.

"oh" the creature said sounding embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his head. The girl couldn't help but giggle at his foolish behaviour. The creature smiled back before his stomach gurgled a little.

"I better get you that burger and chips then" said the girl before rushing over to the house front door.

"Come on, come in!" She said as she opened the door and rushed inside. The creature quickly followed bounding joyfully behind her.

The girl had her servants make a large serving of cheese burger and chips especially for him and he didn't wait 5 seconds before starting to stuff his face. The girl giggled again before speaking

"So what's your name?"

"Sufficcmpf" he said spitting food everywhere.

"I can't hear you while you're eating" the girl giggled

"Sonic" he said after swallowing a huge lump of burger.

"That's an interesting name" Anna said inquisitively.

"is it?" Sonic said plainly.

"yes". Anna exclaimed.

"Not just that. How you look! There are no creatures here that look anything like you! Where do you come from?"

"Well..." Sonic stopped eating for a bit to speak

"Me and Tails were battling Eggman when" Sonic couldn't resist for very long and continued to eat mid conversation.

"who is this Tails you keep talking about?"

"Off, hurff?" Sonic said with his mouth full.

"GULP! She's just my friend. She's a fox and she makes sure I don't get into trouble" Then suddenly he realised something while in the middle of the next bite.

"Iff furgoff! GULP! I need to find her!" he yelled desperately while standing up.

"Whoa, wait" Sonic turned to look at her

"Maybe you should stay here"

"why?" Sonic asked before quickly grabbing another chip.

"You said she protects you from danger right?"

"yeah" he grabbed another chip before then taking several more and shoving them in his mouth

"then you should wait here to keep safe until she finds you. That's what I would do"

"Oh!" Sonic said in surprise

"You're right! I'll stay here then"

"Good, you don't want too many people seeing you because they might try to capture you and do experiments on you" Sonic stared back at her in terror at the idea

"It's OK. It's OK! You will be safe here. I have bodyguards and lots of security. There is no way anyone suspicious can come in here. As long as you stay hidden".

"Good" Sonic sighed with relief. He tried to shove more chips in his mouth but he soon realised he had run out. Sonic looked very disappointed.

"You can have dessert if you want" Anna said when she noticed how sad he looked while circling his fingers round the greasy plate. Sonic perked up and smiled a big grin. The girl took that as a yes and ordered some cake.

"So before the dessert arrives, tell me how you got here"

"Oh, yes! Sorry. Me and Tails were fighting Eggman. Eggman is this big bad guy where we live and we have to stop him causing trouble. So we were fighting him and then suddenly he used the power of the chaos emeralds in his machine but we smashed the controls so the machine went crazy and then there was a big flash of white. Then I woke up and I was here. You know, I've never seen a creature like you before either"

"So are you from a different world? WOW!" The girl exclaimed with great excitement.

"I-I guess so" then Sonic noticed the food coming his way and starting jumping about with joy.

"You know, Tails would have never let me do this!"

"Do what?"

"Eat all this food!" he said before trying to stuff the entire cake in his mouth at once

"I think I can see why" The girl said under her breath. However, Sonic didn't notice and continued to stuff himself with food.

The girl yawned. "Well, it's getting late. I better get to bed at last. I was just about to go to bed when you fell in that pool, you know?" Sonic put his hand behind his head

"y-yeah sorry about that" he said embarassed.

"Oh, it's OK. It's not your fault you fell in there. I doubt you did it on purpose if you couldn't swim" Sonic smiled at her and continued to eat.

"You better come and get some sleep to" The girl said getting up and walking towards the door.

"After the cake" Sonic said looking worried

"After the cake" she said with a smile before wandering out the door

"you can finish it upstairs. Come on". Sonic quickly grabbed what was left of the cake and bounded to the door to catch up with her.

Meanwhile, somewhere nearby in an industrial area there is a science lab. Here is where a little humanoid bunny girl creature lies with soft light brown fur and large floppy ears. She wore a little orange dress and held tight to a little blue creature with a little red bow tie. She cowered in fear as the humans busily typed on their computers like futuristic ants and examined her data.

"Goddammit Sonic!" A voice yelled angrily from the streets.

"I'm gonna kill him for this!" a two tailed fox with golden fur and a white crest wandered about the backstreets of the city. Tails then noticed a frilly handkerchief on the floor. She picked it up and examined it before then rushing away. Before long she arrived at the science lab. She paused and considered her plan before unscrewing a vent and crawling inside. It wasn't long before she came across the forlorn cries of Cream the bunny trapped in a green glass tube. Tails waited for her moment and then threw an explosive to smash the tube open.

The head scientist yelled "don't let them get away!" but by the time the smoke cleared they were already long gone. However, the security cameras blocked their path. But tails had a trick up her sleeve. She quickly threw out some small devices that landed on the cameras and disabled them with an electric charge. Tails quickly ran down the halls with the bunny creature holding on by one hand and still tightly clutching onto her precious blue chao with the other.

However, the security soon caught up with them and the security guards blocked their way. Cream made a little squeal "What do we do now miss Miles?"

"Don't worry. Let me handle this" Tails reassured Cream before the little devices which were once on the cameras gave the guards an electric shock and they collapsed.

"Oh! Miss Miles! Are they OK?" Cream said in shock

"they'll be fine. It's just enough to stun them but it won't kill them"

It wasn't long until they escaped the building. Tails took them far away and into a dark back alley before stopping to catch her breath

"what do we do now miss Miles and where is Sonic?"

"Don't worry about that Cream. Everything is going to be fine. We need to find a good hiding place to keep you safe at least quite a ways away from here. We will have to keep going until we find it"

"OK Miss Miles." Cream said shyly.

"chao chao!" said the little blue creature who had now used its little pink wings to fly out of her arms.

"Cheese and I will do anything we need to if that will help" Cream said and Cheese smiled and clapped eagerly in agreement.

"Good. Thank you Cream. You are a good girl. Unlike Sonic who I am gonna-" Tails looked over at Cream as she stared blankly back at her

"I am so mad at him right now!" Tails said changing her tone a little.

"I guess we should try and find him and the others. We will be safer together" Tails let out a deep sigh

"But for now it's late so we should rest"

"yes Miss Miles" Cream replied chirpily and with that Tails and Cream settled in the dark alley for the night as best they could.

The next day, Sonic awoke feeling hungry. The girl was still asleep. Sonic tried to get out of his sleeping bag but struggled and wiggled to no avail.

"You need some help?" The girl was awake now and she got up out of bed to help Sonic out of his sleeping bag. It was easy once she unzipped it. Sonic leapt out of the sleeping bag as soon as he could.

"Breakfast! Breakfast!" Sonic yelled excitedly.

"Honestly, do you care about nothing but food?" the girl said jokingly. Sonic went quiet

"That's what Tails would say..." Sonic stared out of the bedroom window. The girl knew what was on his mind.

"Don't worry, Sonic. I'm sure, if she is as strong as you said she is, she will be fine" the girl said with an encouraging confidence. Sonic continued to stare out of the window for a while before giving a deep sigh and turning to the girl.

"Miss Rhianna, your breakfast is served" a servant called through the doorway.

"Yes, I'll be right there!" Rhianna called back before turning back to Sonic.

"So your name is Rhianna?" Sonic asked.

"Yes" She sighed.

"Boring isn't it? Just call me Anna" she smiled a sweet smile

"Let's get some breakfast, eh?" Sonic smiled back and he followed her down the stairs. After breakfast they watched some TV. Sonic lay slouched on the couch watching the local news channel until he suddenly jumped up.

"A chaos emerald!" He yelled in surprise and urgency. There they were talking about a newly discovered jewel found buried in the ground of an archaeological dig started under a building in the city.

"No-one knows how it got there and archaeologists are saying it is a new type of mineral never seen before. The value is estimated very high with its size. This could be the discovery of the century" the TV newsreader continued.

"chaos emerald?" Anna asked inquisitively

"It's a magic jewel from our world and it's really powerful. We need to get it before Eggman does!" Sonic said with a sense of urgency that seemed unfitting for him. And with that he jumped up from the couch and rushed towards the door in a blue blur.

"W-wait!" Anna called after him

"Do you even know where the chaos emerald is?" Sonic stopped on the spot and then turned around, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment

"no" he admitted

"I do" Said Anna rushing to his side

"It's the building round the corner of the jewellery shop my mum likes. It's not far from here. My chauffer can help us get there" she said as she quickly passed him and rushed out of the room

"Common, this way!" Sonic followed behind as they raced to the garage.

At this time Tails and Cream were wandering around the back alleys of the city to travel while in hiding. However, something caught Tails' attention when they were passing by a TV shop in the street.

"...what seems to be a giant jewel..." Tails immediately perked up.

"what is it miss Miles?" Cream asked before Tails shushed her to be quiet. Tails looked very intently at the TV screen for a few minutes until they showed an image of their findings. Tails wasted no time in rushing off with Cream in hand

"argh! Miss Miles must you move with such hast?!" Cream cried but to no avail.

Meanwhile, a humanoid pink creature wandered through the sewers. It had a short pink crop hair made of spikes, tied back with a bright red hair band. It wore a bright red dress and she held some bright red boots to match with her fingers as she walked.

"I can't BELIEVE I had to go down here!" She said in frustration.

"Those pink freaks will get what's coming to them, someday. Mark my words. NO-one lays a hand on my dress and gets away with it!" she angrily ranted to herself as she walked. Then she noticed a manhole above her

"Ah, an opening. Finally, I can get out of this filthy hole!" she carefully inched open the lid of the manhole and looked around but almost as soon as she did so she saw a black limo careening towards her. She quickly went under the manhole again and after a few seconds opened it up and peaked out again to see what almost hit her. She saw the back of a creature with big blue spikes on the back of its head and a crisp packet flew into her face from the limo as it went past. She quickly grabbed the crisp packet and threw it off her face

"I would know those blue spikes anywhere" She threw the manhole open and jumped out

"Sonic! It's me! Amy!" The limo continued down the road at high speed. Amy shook her fists and growled

"That fat BASTARD!" in frustration.

Tails had climbed a high office building and looked down at the archaeological site. Cream was hidden safety away behind an air vent on the top of a building nearby. Tails saw the chaos emerald held in the newsreaders hands while she was filming live. It took mere seconds for her to react and she jumped down to the side of the newsreader just as quickly. She grabbed the chaos emerald out of the newsreaders hand before jumping away onto the scaffolding of the half built building structure on the site.

"sorry, but this is too important for you to be touching like that" Tails said as she stood on the scaffolding of the building site nearby. She was just about to leave when she heard a voice calling to her

"Tails!" she quickly turned back to see Sonic and Anna standing outside a black limo nearby.

"Sonic!" Tails exclaimed with a big smile before rushing towards him. Sonic's eyes shined with joy at seeing his old friend before he was rudely awakened from his stupor by a hard slap on the cheek.

"You IDIOT, SONIC!" Tails screeched with her fists clenched either side of her body, trying to contain her anger.

"What were you thinking, destroying the machine. Are you NUTS?!" Sonic hung his head in shame

"but I was just trying to help" Sonic said solemnly.

"Well, look what that got us into!" She said throwing her arm out to the world around them to demonstrate her point

"Why can't you just think before you act for once! I don't even know why we bring you to fight Eggman anymore!" Sonic hung his head in shame. Tails breathed a big deep sigh and paused for a while before responding

"At least you're safe" she said.

"Have you got the emerald?" Sonic asked eagerly but before Tails could respond Sonic saw a big wide figure stand behind her. Sonic didn't have a chance to warn her before she was smacked on the back of the head with a huge hand and fell unconscious.

"Tails!" Sonic yelled in despair as he knelt to see if she was OK. Sonic looked up to see the emerald taken by large hands. He tried to grab it before he did but he was too late

"Looks like I have it now" a man's voice boldly stated before bellowing a hearty laugh.

"HOOO ho ho ho!"

It was an old man with a large chest and pot belly. He wore a big red shirt with white gloves and tight black pants. His hands and feet were rather large in proportion to the rest of his body even though he was already of a large build, perhaps even twice as big as a normal adult man. He wore giant shiny black shoes with short heels and a large orange moustache that stretched to twice the length of his head from one end to the other.

"What are you doing? Give it back!" Anna yelled at the man before running towards him. However, the large man easily over powered the thin teenager and trapped her behind his arm and against his wide chest.

"Anna, NO!" Sonic yelled.

"It seems I now have two prizes for the price of one. Buy one get one free. HOOO ho ho ho, ho, hooo!" The man laughed loud and bold

"Save us your stupid puns, old man!" The man quickly turned to see Amy standing nearby.

"What would you know about comedy? You can't even dress for the occasion" as the old man responded Anna opened her mouth wide and bit hard into the man's huge hand.

The man yelled in agony and loosened his grip enough for her to slip out of his arms and grab the emerald out of his other hand. She then threw it to the closest person she could see. Amy caught the emerald before realising

"Don't give it to ME?!" she said in panic as the old man turned and stared at her. Amy looked at Sonic in panic but all he could do was watch in horror. The old man didn't hesitate to pounce towards her but she started running with the emerald held as far as she could in front of her with both hands.

Tails started to snap out of unconsciousness but it wasn't long before Amy was overpowered by the man's big black foot and the emerald prized from her hands. The man held Amy tightly under one arm and held the emerald with the other as before but this time he rushed away into a dark alleyway. Tails and Sonic quickly followed but they weren't fast enough to stop him from rising into the air with his round craft.

The craft was only just big enough for the fat man to fit so he shuffled in it for a minute or so. Amy wiggled and squirmed all the while yelling at the top of her lungs various profanities and insults about his weight. The man ignored her and pressed a few buttons on the control panel in front of him. This made two large, thick metal wires come out from the machine. These wires had three finger like pincers at the end and he proceeded to use it to grab Amy out of his hands.

He squeezed her tightly so she chocked and grimaced in pain, unable to speak. "Aaah, that's better" The old man said as he wiggled her around tauntingly. Tails looked up at him and grimaced angrily at him before suddenly a blue blur sped into the scene and smacked into the wire holding Amy. However, this didn't work very well as the wires were too strong to break and he fell back onto the ground, landing on his feet.

"Fashionably late, as usual" Tails said but actually sounding rather pleased.

"You're bleeding!" Anna cried but it was too late. Tails' adrenaline had kept her going but when she touched her head and saw the blood she suddenly run out of energy and collapsed. Sonic dashed to her aid and caught her before she hit the floor.

"HOOO ho ho ho!" The old man laughed triumphantly.

Anna held a handful of rocks and stone pieces from the archaeological site and proceeded to throw them at the old man with great enthusiasm. The old man was caught off guard and found it difficult to avoid them. It wasn't long before one of them hit him directly in the face. When he shuffled to get away from one of the rocks, his fat belly slipped out of place and accidently pressed a bunch of buttons and switches on his control panel. These button presses caused the machine to sway left and right and move around in circles. The long wire arms of the machine lost their grip on Amy as they flailed about in all directions. The old man noticed this was happening and tried to regain control of his hover craft but soon realised he couldn't see due to his face being swollen by the last rock that hit him.

"I will come back for you. Soon I will find all of them! You wait and see! I am the genius and I have the devices. I'd like to see you find them before me! HOOO ho ho ho hooooo!" He said before stumbling away into the distance in his machine and almost crashing into the corner of a skyscraper on his way.

"Are you OK, Tails?" Anna said worriedly as Sonic tried to hold her upright.

"Tails" Sonic said with concern. Tails tried to stand still but her legs shaked violently.

"I-I'm OK. I just need to-" Tails said faintly before falling off her feet again and Sonic caught her in his arms once again.

"She'll be OK" Amy said as she came closer, brushing the dirt from her dress and hair.

"She's stubborn that way. She just needs to lie down for a while"

The news helicopters flew overhead and peered down at them and police sirens blared at them

"Where is she going to rest? She can't rest here and now they will be looking for us" Sonic said worriedly.

"You can stay at my mansion" Anna said in quick response.

"There is plenty of space for all of you and my security guards will make sure no-one follows us there or enters the house without our consent"

"Are you sure?" Sonic said anxiously. Anna turned and smiled at him

"You get what you pay for. My parents are one of the richest families in the city. That mansion is only the house we use in the summer and it's especially for me"

"Then let's get out of here so I can have a wash. GOD!" Amy said before rushing away towards the limo.

"Yes. You do smell a bit. What happened to you?" Anna asked

"Don't ask" Amy replied. Everyone followed Anna into the limo and they all drove to Anna's mansion.

This was their new home, for now.


	4. Chapter 4: Settling In

The crew got to the mansion safely and Sonic carefully placed Tails into bed to rest her head. Amy dashed straight to the bathroom and demanded the servants to give her the full spa treatment as she said she deserved after all the trauma. Anna came in slowly with her hands held carefully in front of her. Sonic had already rushed back to see Anna through the door. It was then that he noticed the strange way she was holding her hands.

"What are you holding, Anna?" Sonic asked curiously. Anna looked up and smiled shyly and then opened her hands. Inside lay the emerald.

"You have the emerald!" Sonic yelled so loudly there was no way anyone could not have heard.

Soon everyone had gathered round to see the event. Anna just put her hand behind her head in embarrassment and proceeded to give the amulet to Sonic.

"You should take it and keep it safe" Anna said.

"No, I think you should keep it" Sonic said pushing her hand away.

"Me?!" Anna said in surprise and confusion

"Why the hell would you give it to HER?!" Amy screamed.

"Well, she kept me safe so...maybe she can keep the emerald safe to". Anna stared at the emerald. This was the most important responsibility she could possibly have and has ever had in her life.

"Why are you giving it to her?!" Amy said with frustration before walking up to Anna and holding out her hand

"Give it to me" Everyone paused

"common!" she said gesturing impatiently with her hand. Anna looked over at Sonic concernedly

"But I want to give it to Anna" Sonic said

"Anna found it so it should be her choice" Cream agreed and Cheese cheered along with her. Amy stared at everyone momentary before growling in anger and storming out of the room.

"Don't worry about Amy, miss Anna. She is always a little short tempered" Cream said comfortingly.

"Now" Sonic said while stretching his arms

"I think I need a nap"

"Yes, I think you do" Anna giggled

"It's been a long day already".

Cream stood with her head down. "What's wrong?" Anna said, feeling concerned

"Do you think Miss Miles will be alright?"

"Miss Miles?" Anna asked

"She means Tails. Her real name is Miles but we call her Tails as a nick name" Sonic explained before going further up the stairs. Anna bent down to talk to Cream

"Yeah, I think so. She looked pretty tough to me and that man couldn't have hit her too hard"

"I guess so" Cream still seemed a little unconvinced.

"Don't worry. I'm sure she will be better soon. Why don't you stay with her and keep her company for a while?"

"Do you think that would help?" Cream said starting to perk up with the prospect of helping

"I think so" Anna said cheerfully. Cream smiled and then bounded over to see Tails.

Anna wondered what to do as she sort of felt bored now everything had settled down so quickly. She couldn't exactly do her normal activities with all these guests here. She needed to find something else to do. She decided since she had talked to Sonic and Cream and they were both occupied, she should talk to Amy. She hadn't really got to know her yet and she didn't want to interrupt Cream now she was helping Tails.

Anna wandered into the spa room where Amy was lying down having a massage with some mud pat on her face and someone painting her nails at the same time. It was difficult for the servant to paint the nails when they were an unusual shape and they were shaking a little from the massage on Amy's back shaking her whole body.

"Don't you dare mess this up, servant. If I see a single speck of nail polish out of line then I'm going to make you pay!" Anna cringed at the thought of talking to her with this attitude and wondered whether it was a good idea to say they could use her facilities as they pleased. But she hoped that she was just in a bad mood after all the events that have happened. After all, there should be no harm in saying hello.

Anna inched closer and psyched herself up to talk. "Hey" Anna said friendly. Amy didn't respond straight away and she was about to give up and walk away until Amy finally responded with

"What do you want?" rather sharply

"I-I just wanted to ask how you are doing?"

"How do you think I'm doing?"

"It's just, I haven't talked to you yet. I don't even know your name"

"Amy and DON'T call me any nick names. My name is Amy and that's that, got it?" Anna just nodded nervously

"So you have rich parents right?" Amy said without looking at Anna.

Anna saw an opportunity for further conversation "Yes but they aren't home very often. It's nice to have some people around because I'm often on my own and I often-"

"don't care" Amy interrupted rudely. Anna was stunned. No-one had ever talked to her that way and she was unsure how to respond.

"You should stop messing around and put that emerald away somewhere safe. Sonic gave you that reasonability so you had better not screw it up"

"Oh, yes, of course, I'll, b-bye!" Anna used that as an excuse to run out the room as fast as possible. She didn't like that conversation and she would prefer not to talk to her again at least for a while.

Anna decided that maybe she should relax for a while since a lot had happened so she went to her special place on her bedroom balcony and stared out at the city watching the cars go by. She then continued the sketch she had started a few days ago. It was a detailed pencil drawing of a scene with a cherry tree. Two people were sitting underneath and others playing in the background. She got lost in her drawings and was only stirred by the occasional loud car going past on the road outside.

Soon hours had passed and she was stirred from her peaceful drawing by her servants asking if she wanted dinner. She agreed and just before she had the chance to continue drawing she noticed something odd in the distance from the balcony. A bright red animal-like figure jumping from building to building with its hands. Anna stood up and leaned over the balcony to get a closer look and noticed this creature had another brown creature hanging on its shoulder and held in place by the creatures arm. Anna knew something was wrong and she quickly got up to tell the others. Once everyone knew Sonic was the first to speak

"That must be Knuckles" he said.

"Oh, god. Not HIM" Amy said, sounding annoyed.

"Who is Knuckles?" Anna asked

"Another one of us" Sonic explained

"but I don't know who that brown person could be"

"It's probably some dirty thing he dragged out from god knows where" Amy said, sounding fed up

"But if it's a person they might need help" Anna said sounding worried

"that's true. He might be trying to find us so we can help them" Sonic agreed.

"But how do we get his attention and let him know we are here?" Anna asked

"Are you all morons?" Amy said after there was a pause since no-one seemed to know what to do

"We can all stand outside. If he's close enough for Anna to see him then he will see us" Amy exclaimed, baffled by their inability to see this solution.

"Yes, we can stand on the roof!" Sonic said sounding happy that he came up with an idea

"Oh, no. I am NOT climbing up there. I just got a pedicure!" Amy said

"But you are bright pink. He'll see you for sure" Sonic said.

Anna looked Amy in the eyes "Please, Amy. That person could be really hurt" she begged.

Amy looked around before sighing "alright but this better not rip my dress or I'll kill you both".

So Sonic, being the fastest of the group at climbing, helped everyone up and onto the roof and they all waved and shouted at Knuckles. It didn't take him long to see them and he quickly jumped over to them.

"You guys can't half shout" Knuckles said as he came up to them.

Sonic looked down at the brown creature "What's wrong with her?"

"I found her a few days ago alone in a thick forest. I ran out of food supplies and she's weak with hunger and she already was weak enough when I found her"

"My servants are cooking dinner. They should have food ready soon" Anna said, glad that she could help with a feeling of hope

"good. Is there somewhere I can lay her to rest?"

"yes, I have a free bed she can use. I'll show you" Anna leapt off the roof and guided Knuckles to one of the many bedrooms in the mansion where he lay the brown creature down on the bed with the upmost of care. Knuckles stared at her limp and weak body for a while. Anna felt like it wasn't right to break this silence and so they both stood in complete silence for what felt like a lifetime. Then Cream came in.

"So who is going to keep an eye on her? I can't watch Tails and her" Cream said worriedly. Anna looked over to Knuckles again and Knuckles looked at Clereen again before shuffling uncomfortably and swiftly turning to leave the room. However, Clereen despite her weakness managed to twitch and let out a faint whine

"I'm not a babysitter! I have my own needs" Knuckles said with frustration. Clereen didn't move or make a sound in response but somehow a discomforting feeling seemed to soak into the room.

Anna looked over at Knuckles "You are the only one who knows her, Knuckles" she said sympathetically.  
"But I have only been with her for half a week or so and most of that time she was almost unconscious"  
"But you still know her better than anybody else here" Anna reasoned.

Knuckles gave a deep sigh "alright" Knuckles agreed but he still stood stiffly away from Clereen until the others left the room. Then Knuckles walked slowly towards her and put his hand on her chest before sighing deeply again. He could have sworn he saw a faint smile on her face but he couldn't be sure.

Days passed and steadily Tails and Clereen started to recover from their weaknesses. Tails, being able bodied and strong willed, recovered faster than Clereen. Soon Tails was walking around the house going to everyone and asking questions about this new stranger. No-body really knew anything about Clereen other than Knuckles but he refused to budge when pressured by Tails.

Saying things like "It's not your business" and

"Clereen needs to rest. You are disturbing her". Tail was aware he was avoiding something and this made her feel rather suspicious. Not only of Knuckles but also of Clereen. For all they know she could be a spy sent by Eggman. It's not the first time that's happened.

Nevertheless, there is the chance that Clereen was just a poor innocent soul who has fell under hard times and Tails didn't want to come off as being insensitive and rude. So despite asking at least a few questions every day to Knuckles, she never tried to push him too much. Clereen would recover soon anyway so any questions that needed to be answered would be then. However, Tails found herself very bothered by the food situation.

Knuckles didn't stay with Clereen all the time as he sometimes switched with Cream and Anna to give him a break now that Tails was better enough to handle herself. Even Sonic tried to look after her but that didn't go well and he was never given the responsibility again since he covered her bed with spaghetti and meatballs. Early on, Knuckles had instructed the others to feed Clereen with at least several times the amount of food you would expect a creature of her size to eat.

However, when anyone questioned it he just said "That doesn't matter right now. She needs food. Trust me".  
Everyone accepted this answer, except for Tails. She wasn't at all satisfied with just trusting his word. She was dying to know what this was about. It didn't help that Knuckles didn't like letting anyone feed her other than him after the first few days and he locked him and Clereen away in the room at feeding times. This made Tails even more suspicious but still Knuckles would not budge and Tails knew that when Knuckles was determined there wasn't much she could do. Tails talked to Sonic and Anna about it and they both suggested in their own way that she might be acting paranoid. Tails felt very unsettled but she decided that maybe they were right. Perhaps she should judge her by her actions instead when it comes to it. She waited eagerly for her to recover.

After 3 days or so Clereen had recovered enough to seem conscious and she responded to people who talked to her. However, she was rather quiet most of the time, only responding with different expressions like a simple smile or frown. That was with anyone other than Knuckles. Tails could swear she could hear them talking a lot to each other during feeding time and night time through the locked door of the room. As Clereen recovered more, knuckles seemed to take more responsibility for her until he was the only creature to interact with her at all, isolated in the room with her behind a locked door. At least, this was what everyone else saw. Inside things were different.  
There was an awkward silence between Clereen and Knuckles as she saw Knuckles coming into the room with her food and proceeding to put it by her bedside. The Clereen broke the silence

"Knuckles..." Knuckles looked down at her

"what? Do you need something?"

"I miss you at night, Knuckles" Knuckles shuffled uncomfortably as he rubbed his hand on his arm. Clereen suddenly seemed to perk up and she smiled with glee

"Can you read me a bedtime story tonight?" she said cheerfully, tail wagging as she sat up. Knuckles grabbed a book from the bookcase on the other side of the room and put it on her lap. Clereen looked at it intently before looking back at Knuckles expectantly.

"I got you a book. You can read it yourself" Knuckles said with a little distain

"but..." Clereen said sounding disappointed.

"Don't tell me you can't read" Knuckles said

"errr, YES! I mean no I can't read" Clereen couldn't look Knuckles in the eye as she said it and it looked as if she was trying to look at everything else other than him at the same time

"...and yes I can't read" then Clereen tilted her head and pulled an expression of confusion before thinking out loud  
"Then I guess both are-"

"That's a lie isn't it?" Knuckles cut her off, sounding rather fed up Clereen looked down at her hands and twiddled with her fingers like a little girl that had just been scolded. Knuckles sighed deeply

"alright" he said at last. Clereen quickly looked at him and bounced on the bed yelling with joy before quickly getting tired and putting her hand to her head.

"Clereen, you can't move around too much remember? You're still not completely recovered yet" Knuckles said with irritation. Clereen looked up at Knuckles rubbing her head

"My head hurts" she said rather faintly. Knuckles could see her eyes starting to water

"I'll get you some medicine" he said before swiftly striding out the door.

Later, Knuckles read her a bedtime story that night but her eyes were clearly heavy even before he arrived.

"Clereen, I think you should just get to sleep" Knuckles said

"NO!" Clereen cried desperately. Knuckles sighed, sat down on the bed beside her and started reading. Clereen tried to keep her eyes open but she struggled and it was obvious she couldn't stay awake

"Clereen..." Knuckles said with a deep breath, perhaps feeling more concerned than fed up now

"NO!" Clereen yelled or at least as much as she could do as she was falling asleep. Knuckles continued to read and Clereen continued to struggle to stay awake the whole time and kept asking questions that she should have known the answer to had she been paying attention.

Knuckles tried not to notice since he knew she would just yell at him again if he gave up. Then Clereen eventually fell asleep and Knuckles was able to leave the room. The next night she did the same thing. Knuckles was hesitant but she insisted he should read her a bedtime story. This time she was awake for longer. The story this time was about a goat who teased his elder fellow goats in the field but only got shouted at and knocked away. One part of the story had the goat try to climb onto another goats back but the adult goat didn't like it and bucked him off.  
The whole time Clereen kept interrupting with questions and queries such as "what kind of goats are they do you think?" and

"OH! Then they are in Scotland?". Knuckles tried to discourage her talking and continue with the story but Clereen refused to continue unless he gave an answer related to the statement. When it got to the part with the goat climbing the older goat she yelled

"But that's not fair!". By this point Knuckles was rather fed up and losing his patience.

He said with a sigh "what's not fair?"

"you can't hurt him like that! He's just a kid!"

"Well, he was annoying the adult goats" Knuckles tried to reason

"But all he wanted was attention. If they just gave him a hug or something then he wouldn't be doing that. What's so hard about giving him a hug or talking to him a while or something? Errr right?" Clereen started with great energy but then sounded inquisitive at the end

"I-I don't know Clereen. They probably were already talking to him but he wanted more attention and to play rough"

"And why would a goat get annoyed from a younger goat jumping onto its back? Isn't that what goats supposed to do?"

"Clereen, do you want me to read you this story or not?!" Knuckles said rather irritated. Clereen quickly went quiet, pushing her lips inside her mouth and shuffling further into her bed sheets to hide the lower half of her face. Knuckles continued to read. Clereen tried to stay quiet but struggled a few times. She wiggled in bed and sat up to say something but with one look of Knuckles' face she went back into bed quietly. Before long, Clereen was falling asleep but she tried to keep herself awake for longer.

"Clereen, don't you think you have had enough? You are falling asleep again. Can I put the book back now?"  
Knuckles was about to get up when he stopped as he felt a furry hand touch his. Clereen looked into his eyes and smiled faintly before yawning and slowly closing her eyes. Knuckles sat there for a while in silence. He put his other hand on top of hers and he couldn't help but smile a little.

"Knuckles..." Clereen said gently. Knuckles jerked a little when she spoke as he expected she was already asleep. Clereen spoke with her eyes still closed

"Thank you" Clereen gripped his hand a little tighter.

"I get scared and lonely at night, Knuckles. Please stay with me" Knuckles didn't need to say anything. He held her hand a little tighter as she did for him and Clereen drifted off into dreamland before he could give an answer. That night he stayed with her and ended up falling asleep beside her.

It wasn't long before Clereen was fully recovered. Once she felt well Clereen wasted no time to get up and out of bed when Knuckles had gone to the toilet. Her legs were a little wobbly at first but Knuckles had been working with her before to get used to moving her legs a little again yesterday so she soon steadied herself. The door was locked when Knuckles wasn't in the room, as always, so she decided to open the window. She looked out and she could see a nice little patch of wild flowers growing on a thin patch of grass just below her. Further ahead from that was a little forest area with big rocks and boggy land.

Clereen's eyes glistened with joy and wonder as she looked out at the sunny beautiful scene in front of her. Without much hesitation, Clereen started to think about jumping out the window but she wasn't sure how to do it. She had just got her leg out of the window when Knuckles re-entered the room. He quickly ran over to her yelling  
"Clereen, what are you doing?!" before quickly grabbing her arm and pulling her back into the room.  
"What on earth were you trying to do?!" Knuckles said in a panic.

"Go outside" Clereen said plainly, sounding slightly stunned and confused.

"That's not how you go outside!" Knuckles said with earnest. Clereen, already feeling bored with this conversation, looked past his shoulder and saw Tails walking along the hallway.

"Hey-ee!" Clereen chirped cheerfully while waving frantically with her right arm. Tails turned, smiled and entered the room

"soooo, you're feeling better now?"

"yep!" Clereen answered wagging her tail excitedly.

"Clereen" Knuckles said sounding a little irritated.

"what?" Clereen said confused.

"Since you are feeling better, why don't I show you around the house?" Tails said eagerly

"Oh, yes!" Clereen said

"No, I think she needs-" but before he could finish Clereen had already bounded out the door and to Tails' side. Tails continued to walk along and start talking about the rooms they were passing. Knuckles gave a deep sigh. Tails was completely recovered just a couple of days before Clereen so she was happy to have something new going on around the house.

Soon Clereen was introduced to everybody around the house with Sonic being the hardest to find since he was running around outdoors. Knuckles kept a close eye on the two. He tagged along behind them and butted in when Clereen said something Tails seemed confused about. Tails was curious and suspicious of Knuckles always trying to speak for her but she let him do it although she didn't really approve.

Half way through Tails talking about the garden, Clereen started to rub her belly and walk away. Knuckles grabbed her arm as she went past

"Where are you going, Clereen?"

"I want breakfast" she said before trying to walk away but Knuckles didn't let go

"It's rude to leave without saying anything, Clereen" Knuckles said sternly

"Can you let go?" Clereen said trying to prise her arm from his grip

"Are you even listening?" Clereen continued to try and pull her arm away from him

"Clereen!" she continued to pull

"CLEREEN!" Knuckles yelled very sternly. She suddenly stopped and looked at him. Tails also suddenly stopped talking and turned around to see what was going on.

"What's going on here? Knuckles why are you yelling?" Tails said with a sense of authority. Knuckles soon noticed Clereen's eyes were starting to grow wet and her lips were quivering

"nononono, Clereen. I-" Knuckles tried to recover it but it was too late. Clereen started to sob and she covered her face with her hands.

Knuckles looked away, turned around and put his head in his hands sighing.

"Are you OK?" Tails said gently to Clereen but she couldn't respond

"Knuckles. What the hell did you do?!" Tails said angrily but before Knuckles could respond they both froze on the spot from a loud growling noise behind them. Tails turned around

"Oh, yes of course. Breakfast!" she said rubbing her hands, sounding pleased she had found a possible solution

"Let's have something to eat and we can talk over breakfast, OK? Common!" Tails walked quickly ahead before Clereen could respond so Clereen slowly followed her. Knuckles quickly followed behind

"no, wait! I don't think that's-" However, Tails gave him a firm look

"haven't you said enough?" she said bitterly.

Tails rushed Clereen to the dining room and ordered some food. Knuckles paused for a while after what Tails said but continued to urge

"No, Tails. She can't...I have to tell you something"

"shut up, Knuckles!" Tails had decided not to listen to anything Knuckles was trying to say and brushed it all off in favour of Clereen who was clearly feeling sensitive, still wiping tears away. Clereen's stomach growled loudly again.  
"All this excitement must have given you a bit of an appetite" Tails said cheerfully.

Clereen said nothing. "Tails, you don't understand. She's-"

"I said I don't want to hear it, Knuckles!" Clereen seemed to get more and more upset the more this went on. Knuckles noticed her getting very upset so he went quiet.

"Right! Good!" Tails said sternly just before the food arrived

"Don't say I didn't try to warn you" Knuckles said

"what are you even talking about, Knuckles? Now is not the time for-" then Tails saw Clereen swallow an entire roast turkey and the potato and salad garnishing's with it in one bite. Tails just stared at her and sat silently.

"Bring more food, please" Knuckles said to the servants as they were leaving the food on the table. However, Tails didn't stay silent for too long

"Wha-what happened? What IS SHE?!" Tails said in panic

"I knew there was something suspicious about her! What is going on, Knuckles?!" Tails shouted in protest. Clereen frowned and hung her head further down. She looked at Knuckles with teary eyes

"Now, who's upsetting her?" Knuckles yelled back. Clereen shuffled towards Knuckles in her chair and put her head on his chest. He put his arm around her without thinking. Then he put his fingers of his other hand to his head for a bit before he spoke again

"Look, I only met her a few days before you did. I don't know who she is but she was born this way and this is the way she is!" Then Knuckles went quiet noticing he was shouting as well.

"She can't help it, OK?" He said trying to sound quieter.

Tails looked at Clereen and back at Knuckles and then back to Clereen. She let out a deep sigh and paused a little. Meanwhile more food came in and Clereen prized herself away from Knuckles' comfort to scoff it down. When Clereen was done eating that serving, which was not much more than a few seconds, Tails putt her hand on Clereen's shoulder.

"Clereen. I didn't understand. I-I didn't mean to upset you" Tails said sincerely. Clereen looked back at Tails  
"that's OK, I guess" she said faintly.

"I'm just not used to people acting like that. I mean, what's so wrong with the way I eat?" Tails looked at Knuckles for confirmation but Knuckles looked just as clueless as she did

"But, Clereen. Haven't you ever eaten with-?" Tails noticed Knuckles frantically and silently giving all the gestures of  
"NO!" beyond Clereen's shoulder and she decided to change the question

"-more than one bite?"

"not that I can think of...OH! More food!" Clereen started to perk up with the more food she ate until she was almost bouncing happily like before.

Tails was about to say something to Knuckles when Clereen interrupted

"Is there any dessert?" Clereen said hopefully.

"Do you want some dessert?" Tails asked now even more surprised since she must have eaten a whole tables worth already

"yeah!" Clereen cried, wagging her little tail

"Alright then" Tails sighed still sounding a little shaken

"HORRAY!" Clereen yelled happily. Tails quickly pulled Knuckles away into a far corner of the room while Clereen was distracted eating ice-cream and trying not to get a brain-freeze.

"Knuckles, this is crazy! What are we going to do about this? What else do we not know about this girl? How are we going to tell the others about this, Knuckles?" Tails said in quick fire

"I-I don't know, OK? All I know is she was lost in the forest on the edge of the city and she told me she lived with her father alone in a house on the far edge of the forest for the whole of her life until now! She told me she had never left the front yard of her house and she told me she was made by a professor in a science lab!"

"So how the hell do we know she isn't just insane?!" Tails whispered strongly

"She told me her father was just murdered by gunshot from another man! I can tell you just by being with her for a few days that she is clearly traumatised and has no knowledge of talking to people whatsoever! She didn't even know what kind of trees where in the forest she lived next to!"

"Oh my god..." Tails said shocked of what she was hearing.

"Is that why you stopped me from..."

"yes... you can't bring it up. She seems to have a bit of a short attention span so she has forgotten it for now but if you mention it she will go crazy! It's happened to me before. She wouldn't stop screaming until I slapped her across the face!"

"The poor thing..." Tails said sounding fainter than usual.

"But she couldn't have been made by a professor, right?"

"Well, Sonic has the power of super speed so who are we to judge?"

"But to make a living, breathing creature out of thin air. I just can't..."

"We are in a totally different universe now so who knows what's possible"

Just then, Knuckles had a double take before realising Clereen was no longer at the table.

"Clereen?!" Knuckles said in panic but they didn't have to worry for long as they soon heard sounds of laughter outside. They wandered over to see Clereen playing and having fun with Sonic outside. As they approached they heard Clereen yelling

"Tag! You're it!" They seemed to be playing tag but something was odd about it. Knuckles turned to Tails  
"Sonic doesn't like to play tag does he?"

"No, because nobody can go fast enough for-" They both stared as they saw Clereen running away from Sonic and them both running so fast they only appeared as coloured blurs of blue and yellow.

"Please, tell me you know something about this, Knuckles" Tails said her voice sounding shaky

"No" Knuckles said in a just as shaky response. Then suddenly Clereen stopped and she put her hand to her stomach panting.

"What's up? Tired already?" Sonic said excitedly.

"I don't feel so good" Clereen said sounding weak. Tails came over slowly

"That's because you started running around strait after eating!" Tails said in her usual stern bossy tone. Clereen hung her head in shame

"I know I'm not supposed to but I didn't know why".

"Well, now you know don't you?" Clereen looked pale but Tails continued to glare at her as if expecting her to say something but the longer she stared the more confused and uncomfortable Clereen became.

"I think you should lie down a while. Common" said Knuckles softly as he gently took hold of her hand and pulled her away from Tails' stare.

Tails walked with them unapprovingly and watched as Knuckles helped Clereen lie on a couch to rest. Clereen asked Knuckles to stroke her head and after initially refusing, seeing Clereen's rather sad and sickly face made him change his mind. Knuckles stroked her head gently and tried to look like he wasn't enjoying it. Knuckles sat nearby with a stroppy and angry look on her face before she decided to break the brief silence

"Why do you protect her Knuckles? She's not 5!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Knuckles said without turning away from Clereen.

"No, I don't believe it is" Tails said sternly.

"She's...like a child..." Knuckles said.

"I know she hasn't socialised with anyone for a long time but that does excuse-"

"She can't help it OK!" Knuckles yelled in earnest before realising his volume and calming down

"I dunno I think she might be special needs or something".

"Hey, hey, hang on a second-"

"I know she hasn't met anybody other than her farther so she will be limited in her social skills but there are some things she should know by now. Like why you shouldn't move after eating and then doing it without being wise enough to think that there might be bad consequences. Getting upset when I yelled at her and just... Haven't you noticed her acting weird? She's different OK!"

Tails looked at Clereen and then back at Knuckles. Knuckles continued

"She asks strange questions and she didn't seem to pay attention when I told her it was rude to just leave because she wanted breakfast". Knuckles said sounding less angry and more saddened.

"So that's what the shouting was about, huh?" Tails said

"I was trying to get her to pay attention. I even grabbed her arm but she still wouldn't listen. I wasn't trying to-"  
"One track minded!" Tails interrupted with a note out loud to herself and then she turned to Knuckles

"She's just being selfish!"

"WHAT?!" Knuckles turned around with a horrible grimace on his face fuelled with rage.

Tails looked back at Clereen who was still just relaxing with her eyes closed and not listening to the conversation  
"She needs to be taught proper manners. I will-" Clereen was now aware of the argument and was curling up into a ball on the sofa.

"I knew you would say that. Honestly, you just can't help yourself can you?" Knuckles said bitterly

"Everyone has to be exactly the way you want them don't they? They have to act exactly the right way don't they?" Knuckles heard wimpering behind him and saw Clereen now completely curled up and scared. He gave a deep sigh  
"Just leave her alone alright? She can't be dealing with this right now" Tails had her arms crossed and was still in a sour mood but she calmed down a bit when he said that as it was a fair point

"Now she's here we have to look after her. There is no way she can survive on her own and she needs to stay here anyway to hide like the rest of us. Or would you prefer to leave her alone outside and let her wander around aimlessly until she gets kidnapped by these strange creatures or Eggman?"

"no" Tails sighed in agreement, calming down further.

"Let's leave this be for now then". Tails said with a disappointed sigh but also sounding rather determined to move on. Knuckles stroked Clereen's head again and soon she had fallen asleep.

"I'll take her to bed." Knuckles said.

He lifted her up into his arms and then said "she shouldn't have been up today anyway" as he left the room. Once Clereen was tucked up in bed, Knuckles smiled a little as he quietly left her room as not to wake her. Tails was waiting behind him and Knuckles jumped a little with surprise.

"So!" Tails said eagerly and Knuckles sighed and turned away before the next part came

"I know you don't want to talk about it but the next time she wakes up she will probably be hungry again and there is no way we can hide her eating habits any longer." Knuckles put his index fingers to his head, shook his head and sighed a pained sigh as if he was just too tired for it all.

"We could...err...we could..." Knuckles tried to conjure an answer but Tails quickly responded before he could make one.

"How about we just introduce her over the table during dinner?" Tails said rather cheerfully.

"Oh nono-nono-no" Knuckles responded in a tired but clear disapproval

"Well, what else can we do, Knuckles?!" Tails said with great frustration

"It's not as if we can hide her again. It's inevitable they are going to find out about her strange habits one way or another so we might as well get it over with."

"You say it like it's so simple" Knuckles said starting to get frustrated again

"Have you ever thought of how SHE would feel about that?!" Knuckles exclaimed. Tails shuffled and moved back a little before trying to interrupt Knuckles again

"Well, of course she won't like it but-" But Knuckles interrupted her back

"She's shy, Tails. She's told me herself. And you saw how uncomfortable she was with your reaction earlier today. How do you think she will feel when at least four other people have that reaction and worse at the same time?! How would anyone feel?!" Tails was quiet for while as he said this since he had a fair point. But nothing could keep her quiet for long

"Well, do you have any better ideas?!" Tails said sounding frustrated again. Knuckles went quiet.

"I didn't think so..." Tails said angrily before pausing for a deep breath

"I know she won't like it but it has to be done. Anything else would be delaying it." Tails continued

After an awkward pause, Knuckles slowly nodded. It was probably for the best they got it over with fast. Although he wished there was a better way so that there would be less pressure on Clereen.

"She didn't look shy to me" Tails said

"It depends. She kind of...switches" said Knuckles bashfully as if embarrassed for Clereen's sake

"so I've noticed." Tails shook her head and then smiled

"Nevermind then!" she said as she perked herself up

"we'll deal with that when it comes to it. For now let's just relax OK?" Tails didn't wait for a reply as she strode off in her usual fashion. Knuckles was left feeling rather tired and stressed with it all so he accepted that offer and went his own way for the time being.

Later, that day Clereen was woken with a startle by the rumbling of her own stomach. It was time for her in-between meal snack. She hadn't been as hungry and able to eat recently with the weakness of her body so this was the first time she had needed a snack but sure enough those rumbles meant she needed one. Clereen, wasn't desperate though so she decided to explore a little. She didn't want to interrupt anyone so she tip towed down the hallway and down the grand stairway. Halfway down the stairs she smelt something delicious and it sent her stomach growling again. She decided to follow the scent and until she found a set of doors more hidden than the other large doorways and a lot less grand. She could hear lots of noises of pots and pans inside but when she leaned onto the door with her ear to hear better she soon found the door opened easily under her weight and she fell flat onto her face.

Recovering quickly, she hid behind a kitchen desk nearby so she wouldn't be spotted. Then she sniffed again and this time she pin-pointed where the smell was coming from. It was coming from a large pot clearly boiling something tasty. Maybe it was a soup that took a very long time to boil or some meat that tasted best when cooked slowly or maybe it was some very very hard pasta. She pondered these things as she crept nearer to get a closer look. She noticed there was a woman singing along to herself while working near the pot.

She was of a, should we say, more than generous build but she hummed to herself like she didn't have a care in the world and she loved her job. Throwing herbs and spices into the pot with a swish of her arm and a flick of her wrist. She swayed her hips merrily as she continued her cooking. Clereen looked around and realised that there had been no-one else in the kitchen despite it being rather large and fancy to match the rest of the mansion. Clereen, was soon brave enough to venture right up to the pot since this woman seemed way too distracted to notice her anyway. She leaned forward to try and sniff the pot but then the woman quickly turned to face her and yelled in shock.

"Argh! Nonono! Honey! Get away from that pan!" Clereen stepped back quickly and cowered in front of her  
"What do you think you're doin'? You could have hurt yourself? You can't go near big boiling pots like that!" Clereen was wondering if she had somehow not noticed what she was considering Anna and of course the professor had told her to stay out of the sight of people since they would be surprised to see her

"And with all that fine fur of yours, an inch closer to that hob and you would have gone in a puff of smoke!" Clereen gasped and put her hands over her mouth in shock. Not only because of the idea that she almost burned herself alive like a roast chicken but also that this lady didn't seem to care at all that she was a talking, living, breathing anthropomorphic dog creature! But before she could react much further, her stomach reminded her of why she was there to begin with.

"Oh, so that's why you're here, huh? Hungry darlin'?" Clereen shuffled bashfully and looked down at her feet before doing a little nod.

"Then why didn't you say so in the first place!" She said suddenly throwing herself into action and running across the kitchen

"I'll get ya somethin' to eat in no time!" Clereen smiled a little smile and there was a pause before the lady turned around again and stared at Clereen

"Well, don't just stand there. Gimme a hand will ya?" the lady gestured her head towards a rack of kitchen appliances to her left as her hands were full.

"Grab me that ladle will you, darlin'" she said before turning back to her work without waiting for an answer. Clereen, stood for a few seconds not sure what to do before then rushing to get the ladle. She was a little short for the desk but she could just about reach it. Then she gave it to the lady.

"There's a stool over there" the lady said without turning to look at her and gesturing her head to the other side of the room. Clereen rushed over there "second cupboard from the door" Clereen pulled it out

"You got it?" The big woman called. Clereen held it up and smiled triumphantly

"Alright, come over here then. You can use it to see inside the pot" Clereen brought it to the lady and put it beside her before then stepping on it as requested. She could see the inside of the pot now and it seemed to be a delicious stew. Clereen licked her lips eagerly.

"Aww bless ya darlin'" The lady said as she pulled her close for a cuddle.

"My name is Holly. What's yours, honey?"

"No, I'm Clereen" Holly chuckled a little at Clereen's lack of understanding as she gave her a banana from a fruit bowl nearby. Clereen, helped Holly cook for the next couple of hours and she got her snack on the way as Holly allowed her to 'sample' the ingredients.

Tails and Knuckles had been trying to find the elusive Clereen for ages but to no avail. Eventually, they went to the table since the food was being served and hoped she would appear. Clereen did like food after all. That was something they could both agree on. Everyone was surprised when Clereen came out of the kitchen serving the food along with Holly while wearing an apron and cooking mitts. She looked very happy and proud of herself as she placed the bowls of tomato pasta in front of each person at the long dinner table.

"Clereen?" Knuckles said absolutely stunned as she gave him his meal. However, Clereen ignored him and carried on. Once she was done she ran into the kitchen again. Before long she bounded back into the dining room with a giant pan full of tomato pasta. She then plonked the pan on the table with a mighty 'BUNG!' before she then sat next to it with a hungry grin on her face. Before Knuckles or Tails could say a word the pasta was done her gullet in one giant GULP! She then proceeded to lick the pan clean of tomato sauce. Silence fell across the room for a good while before Knuckles finally threw his arms up in the air.

"WELL! THAT solves one problem!" he exclaimed closely followed by Tails

"Clereen... do you really have to lick the pan like that" she said, unsure what else to say.

"Dawwww. It don't do no harm. She just has a good appetite don't ya baby" Holly said while wandering into the room and proceeding to pet her on the head like a puppy. Knuckles and Tails just stared at each other. Neither could believe their eyes. How did Holly just except this so easily?!

"Holly... doesn't it bother you that she is...well...different" Anna said, trying to be as tactful as possible.

"whaaaaaaat?!" Holly exclaimed sounding almost shocked

"Honestly I can't believe you, honey! She just the darndest little sweetheart aren't ya darlin'" Holly said while further petting Clereen and making her drool with pleasure like a household mutt.

"Believe me, child. When you get to my age nothing surprises you no more" and with that Holly left them to eat while saying

"Don't you let that pasta go cold now. Better eat up!" her hips swayed as she walked like she was dancing to a good tune as she wandered back through the staff doors to the kitchen to prepare for the next meal.


	5. Chapter 5: Over The Hills

After the initial shock of Clereen's strange abilities, everyone was curious to ask her questions but Knuckles reminded them that they had much more pressing matters to worry about. After dinner, it was decided that they needed a plan of action. If the chaos emeralds where scattered around after the blast in this world then they needed to find them before Eggman does. However, there was no way of knowing where to start.

Since the news report earlier was useful, they decided that the best course of action for now was to keep checking the news for any more strange occurrences. Clereen volunteered to help watch the TV since she was used to spending lots of time just in front of a glowing box and she didn't mind spending hours upon hours watching. Clereen took this opportunity to relax for the first time in a while. She snuck some food out of the fridge and snacked in front of the TV. After a while, Anna approached Clereen and tried to say hello but Clereen told her she was busy. Anna thought she was avoiding talking but she didn't want to interrupt her important job.

Sonic, finding himself a little bored, decided to go on a run somewhere, despite Anna's warnings to not be seen. Amy and Tails confirmed that there was nothing to worry about as he was so fast that it would be hard for anyone to see him. Anna wasn't really comfortable with this answer but she trusted their judgement. Knuckles spent his time training his punches against a tree in the garden. He found it difficult to concentrate and ended up checking on Clereen quite often. Anna tried to talk to him about Clereen but he also avoided the conversation.

Just then, Clereen rushed outside. "HEY, EVERYONE!" She yelled out loud.

"Clereen, keep your voice down, please. You need to not be spotted remember?" Anna said in a nervous panic but also while trying to keep her voice quiet.

Clereen pulled her lips in and looked down with guilt before adding with a whisper. "On the news! I think they found a chaos emerald!"

Everyone turned around and came over to Clereen and Anna. "Where Clereen? Where did they find it?"

"errrrrrr" Clereen rolled her eyes up while thinking.

"I don't remember" she said sadly

"What?! It was your responsibility to watch the TV and tell us about any chaos emeralds!" Amy scolded her.

"But I did!" Clereen yelled back in retaliation but it was clear she was also disappointed about it.

"Nevermind that! Is the news report still on?" Anna asked Clereen. Clereen nodded.

"I came as soon as I saw it" Clereen elaborated

"Then we can still find out!" Anna cried as she ran back into the sitting room with the TV.

Everyone rushed into the room along with her. It wasn't long before they heard what they needed to hear "the strange electronic field has caused many electronic devices in the area to malfunction. Scientists suspect the origin of these disruptive electronic waves may be from the mountainous area known as Silver Valley"

"Oh I know that place!" Anna cried

"You do?" Tails said in anticipation

"My parents and I used to go there for picnics all the time" Anna started to feel a little down with the memory of those days long gone. Anna was about to open her mouth when Clereen, oblivious to her upset, interrupted her

"A picnic?!" Clereen cried with joyous surprise and a sparkle in her eyes

"I always wanted to go on a picnic!" Anna couldn't help but smile when she saw how excited Clereen was.

"But you haven't stopped eating since you got here. Haven't you had enough?" Anna said chuckling a little

"Are you kidding?! I've only had 5 cakes, 3 packets of crisps, 10 chocolate and peanut butter sandwiches and 2 bottles of lemonade! I wouldn't miss a picnic for the world!" Clereen tugged at Anna's arm

"We gotta bring a picnic basket! It will be perfect! Just like the movies! Pleeeeeeeease!" Clereen begged desperately like a kid in a candy shop and tugged and tugged at Anna's arm.

"OK OK, we can have a picnic while we are there. We might as well make a day out of it" Anna said, giving in to Clereen's childish charm.

"yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Clereen cheered with glee as she jumped about the room, almost knocking a few ornaments over.

"Clereen be careful! You're going to break something!" Knuckles yelled. Clereen stopped on the spot for a few seconds but she couldn't contain her excitement and soon continued to bounce around.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Amy cried with frustration

"How are we supposed to even get there without being spotted? Did you think of that?!" Amy said, frustrated with the spontaneity of their decision. Clereen and Anna paused and thought.

"I know!" Clereen yelled after a couple of minutes of thinking.

"We can go on a train! I saw a train track on the TV! And-and we can pretend to be stuffed toys!" Clereen said, excited and proud that she came up with the idea

"That's the most stupid idea I have ever-" Amy started to say but was cut off by Anna with a stern expression

"I think it is a great idea" Anna said with emphasis on the 'I' before turning to smile at Clereen as she bounced around the room once more.

"We are going on a picnic! We are going on a picnic!" Clereen sang with cheer. Anna couldn't help but giggle under her breath as she watched her dance around like a cross between a hyperactive bunny and a headless chicken. Amy just crossed her arms in a strop. Cream was fast asleep having a nap so they decided to leave her behind. She had already had a tough day when she was captured and she was only young so she needed her rest.

Sonic decided to go running his way there as he did on his walk earlier. Knuckles followed suit as he claimed he was used to adventuring so it was easy for him to take a hidden route. Tails, Amy and Clereen posed as Anna's toys on the train. It seemed like a good idea at first but when they got on the train everyone was staring.

One of the women on the train whispered "Isn't she a little old for toys".

Clereen took offense at this and immediately responded "no she isn't!" Anna quickly covered her mouth and smiled nervously as the woman looked back at her. The woman looked at her with a displeased expression before turning away again. Clereen's ears lowered and she whimpered a little under her breath.

"Sorry" she whispered to Anna.

"It's OK" Anna whispered back. They lay there for a while until Clereen started to feel bored. She looked up at Anna, still trying not to move too much to ruin the illusion.

Then she whispered to Anna "Give me a cuddle" she said with a smile

"Clereen, you need to stay hidden" Anna said back in surprise

"If you cuddle me, I will be more like a toy" Clereen said while trying to look as serious as possible

Anna could see straight through her but she smiled and pulled her to her chest for a little hug. Clereen smiled and tried not to giggle too loud. Anna was pleasantly surprised with how soft and cuddly she was. Anna found herself genuinely enjoying herself and she proceeded to stroke her on her head. Clereen tried really hard not to giggle too loudly.

"Clereen, your leg" Anna said in earnest. Clereen looked down to realise her leg was kicking slightly.

"Sorry. I always do that when someone pets my head"

"I better stop then"

"But don't push me away. I won't move I promise" Clereen pleaded

"OK" Anna said gently as she pulled her a little closer to her chest.

"now shhh" Anna reminded her. Clereen quickly got back to business of keeping still but before long she nodded off to sleep in Anna's arms. Luckily she didn't snore so she just lay there quietly. Anna smiled at her peaceful sleep. Anna couldn't help but find her adorable. Anna was curious about her stomach so she gently put her hand on her little plump belly as not to wake her. She felt her tummy gurgling contently inside. She was a little surprised with how easily she could feel her stomachs every movement, as if there was a creature inside of her tumbling around or like the inside of a washing machine swishing about its clothes to wash.

Anna looked over to Amy. Amy hadn't budged an inch the whole time. It seemed she took this very seriously as she didn't respond at all with Anna staring. Anna looked over to Tails. Tails had also been trying to stay as still as possible but she looked at Anna and then looked back when she looked at her. Then Tails eyes pointed to the window. Anna followed her eyes to see of the window nearby. She looked out to the grassy fields and hills and realised where they were. Anna shuffled Clereen gently in her arms to wake her up. Clereen opened her eyes slowly and looked up to Anna. Anna put her fingers to her lips to remind Clereen to be quiet. Clereen smiled.

Once they got there, Anna picked up Amy, Tails and Clereen and wandered out the train onto the train station. There wasn't anyone else leaving at this stop and Anna couldn't see anyone for miles. Once the train had got a fair distance away and Anna had walked a little into the wilderness, she spoke to them all.

"The coast is clear. You can stand now"

"Oh thank you!" Amy cried while immediately getting up and stretching her legs and arms.

"I think if I stayed like that a moment longer, I would have gone mad!" Amy said with great relief

Tails got up straight away without a word. Clereen was slower to get up and was still a little dopey.

"Clereen. Time to get up now" Anna said in a more playful and soft tone than she had expected. Clereen blinked several times and shook her head to try and wake herself up. Anna set her down on her own legs and she was a little wobbly at first before standing normally.

"Well that wasn't as painful as I expected" Tails remarked.

"You have got to be joking. Clereen asked for a cuddle while on the train AND she fell asleep!" Amy complained.

Anna turned to Clereen "Are you going to be OK? Don't fall asleep again"

Clereen just yawned "I'll be OK in a few minutes" Clereen said tiredly.

Just then, Sonic and Knuckles arrived.

"Alright, time to find that emerald" Tails said.

"Sonic, Knuckles are you ready?" Tails asked while looking over to the pair.

"Ready when you are" Knuckles said with confidence

"Can't we just sit down first?" Sonic begged

"No Sonic. Don't be so lazy. It's about time you got some exercise" Tails scolded

"You two are the best at exploring. You split up and try to find where the electric signals are coming from. I will use my device to try and locate the chaos emerald while you are gone. We can't waste any time with Eggman around" Knuckles and Sonic agreed and rushed off in their own directions.

"How long is it going to take?" Anna asked Tails

"There isn't a great signal with all these hills and dips in the landscape so it may take a while. I put a tracker on Knuckles and Sonic so when they go they can search for it. I didn't tell them as Knuckles thinks his way is always best and both of them just don't like the idea of devices being attached to them. I can track where they are with my monitor here" Tails explained. It was true, there was a green monitor and you could see red and blue dots moving around.

"Cool" Anna said, rather impressed. Clereen wasn't bothered and was already deep into the picnic basket while no-one was looking.

"Clereen!" Amy scowled at Clereen. Clereen, with her mouth full of strawberry jam sandwiches and jam dripping down her chin, just turned and stared back gormlessly.

"Leave some for us, Clereen" Anna said while chuckling a little

"There is still plenty of stuff left. Look!" Clereen pulled out a ham sandwich and gave it to Anna.

"Thank you" Anna said. Clereen tried to hand Amy a sandwich but frowned when Amy snatched it out of her hand and glared back at her.

Everyone was too distracted by the picnic to notice Tails struggling with the device. Tails noticed something was wrong. "These signals seem to match the wavelength of the chaos emeralds but...the refracted waves should be much stronger than this" But before Tails could fully understand what this meant, a large figure appeared behind her. Suddenly, Clereen looked up and saw the big figure. Clereen tried to cry out to Tails but her mouth was full and she almost choked on peanut butter.

The figure soon scooped up the creatures and trapped them within the glass casing centre of its body. As everyone tried to get to grips with what was going on, a laugh could be heard from nearby.

"HOOO ho ho ho!" Tails recognised that voice straight away

"Eggman!" She cried angrily.

"Glad to see you have met my robot. The capture 6000!" Eggman announced proudly while appearing from behind, sat in his little flying machine.

"Wow, that's creative" Clereen said sarcastically

"Shut up! Hey, I've never seen you before" Eggman paused for a while to examine Clereen as she nervously followed his every move.

"Hmm. No matter!"

"You can't keep us here Eggman! I'll get us out!" Amy got her hammer and tried to smash the glass but it wouldn't budge.

"HAHA! It's not going to break that easily! Besides, I need you to be my hostages for when I find Sonic"

"But how did you know where we were?" Tails said, frustrated and desperate for answers. Eggman laughed once more before continuing.

"You fools still haven't realised yet? The chaos emerald isn't here! I used my robots to create an electronic field similar to that of the chaos emeralds. It was the perfect trap! And now I will finally get my hands on Sonic!" Eggman bellowed in proud laughter once again.

"Of course! That's why the chaos emeralds reflected waves were weaker. The fake energy field has the same wavelength but not the same strength over distance and through objects!" Tails explained as she realised her mistake.

"So much for your stupid devices" Amy said in irritation

"Hey! Leave him alone! It wasn't his fault!" Clereen cried in his defence

"Oh. Like you did any better! You were looking straight at the robot and you didn't do anything!" Amy scowled while aggressively poking at her with her finger. Clereen cowered before her anger but then yelled

"I tried to warn her!" Clereen shouted while trying not to look scared.

"And you couldn't because your gob was stuffed with food!" Clereen stood with her head down in shame and her eyes started to water.

"Maybe if you weren't such a fucking pig, we wouldn't be in this mess!" Amy yelled as Clereen stood trying to hold it in but Clereen's tears started to pour down her face.

"Amy! Leave her alone!" Anna yelled in her defence while stepping forward and putting her hand on her shoulder from behind.

"We don't have time for this! We need to get out before Sonic's in trouble!" Tails yelled. Then Tails walked over to the machinery in the middle of the robot.

"I can disable the robot. Just give me some time" Tails said while unscrewing a metal plate to the inner wire work. Anna tried to hold Clereen close for a comforting hug but Anna was surprised when Clereen pushed her away. Clereen was still crying but she also looked frustrated. Anna understood and stepped back.

"I thought you just said we didn't have time!" Amy argued with Tails. Just then Clereen pushed Amy and Tails out of the way.

"I know what to do" She said with a seriousness and determination that seemed out of character for her.

"What the hell are YOU going to do?" Amy yelled but Clereen ignored her.

"Clereen, what are doing?" Tails exclaimed

"Clereen, please let Tails disable the robot" Anna tried to reason with her, worried for her safety

Clereen stood with her legs splayed and with one hand holding the wrist of her other hand. "Stand back" she said

"What? Is your hand going to explode?" Amy mocked Clereen while chuckling at the prospect of such a stupid thing.

Then the palm of Clereen's palm started to glow a bright yellow and little waves of energy blew their hair and ears as the light grew larger. Then her palm exploded in a wave of energy and a powerful beam of yellow burst through the centre of the robot. When the light faded, everyone looked to see a massive hole the size of a beach ball burnt straight through not only the robot but the grass and soil of the hill underneath as well. The hole went so far it was impossible to tell how far into the earth it went just by sight alone.

Clereen was pouring with sweat and breathing heavily as she stared at the destruction she caused. "Clereen, are you OK?" Anna asked with concern. Clereen turned and smiled before her eyes rolled up and she collapsed.

"Clereen?!" Anna cried in shock.

But before anyone could react, the robot started to tip over to one side and fall apart. Just then, sonic appeared just in time to catch them and get them to safety in a flash of blue.

"Is everyone OK?" Sonic asked as he put Tails down on the grass.

"Clereen?!" Knuckles noticed Clereen collapsed in Anna's arms. Tails examined her

"It looks like she just fainted" Tails explained. Knuckles gave a sigh of relief before then turning towards Anna, Tails and Amy

"What the fuck did you guys do?!" Knuckles yelled in anger

"Don't fucking shout at us!" Amy yelled in retaliation

"HOOO ho ho ho!" Eggman appeared in his spherical floating contraption.

"So there you are Sonic. As you can see I have...HUH?!" Eggman's jaw dropped as he saw the destruction of his robot.

"Alright better go with plan C" Eggman said quickly in embarrassment.

"Don't revel in victory just yet! You haven't seen the last of me, Sonic! Mark my words!" Then Eggman quickly vanished much faster than you would expect such a little contraption to fly.

The gang didn't want to waste any time in going back home. Anna was easily able to call upon a helicopter to take them home and offered to do so but Tails then suddenly noticed a beeping from one of her devices. Tails gasped in surprise.

"My Tornado!" Tails quickly flew away, speedily spinning her famous two tails.

"Tails, where are you going?" Anna enquired as the group chased her around the corner. But when they got round the corner of that hill, they lost sight of her

"We need to get home and take Clereen to bed!" Knuckles yelled. Then suddenly, they all stepped back as a wind blew them back a little. Out of the sky, dived a quaint blue and yellow plane. The plane did a somersault before then landing in front of them.

"It will be a lot faster with the Tornado" said Tails proudly.

"Come on. Everyone get in!" Tails said as he put his flying goggles back on. Everyone climbed into the plane. Anna kept hold of Clereen's unconscious body and carefully put her in the back with her and Knuckles. It wasn't long before they got back and were able to put Clereen to bed. What a long day it had been.


	6. Chapter 6: One Big Family

After resting for a few hours, Clereen woke up. She tried to pull herself up but it felt like gravity was twice as strong and she quickly put her hand to her head as she realised she had a bad headache. Clereen could hear shouting outside the bedroom. She tried to ignore it but her ears couldn't help but hone in on the conversation.

"We can't leave this any longer! You saw what she did with that robot! That is incredible power, she could destroy towns in an instant with that!"

"But you told me yourself she did it to destroy the robot holding you prisoner! She was trying to save you! How the hell can you call her a spy when she saved your life?!"

A spy?! Clereen curled up in her bed. I'm not a spy. I would never do that to them. Knuckles saved my life and no-one else had done anything wrong. Why would they think that? Clereen grew scared. If they think I'm a spy, what would they do to me? Would they try to hurt me? Clereen remembered the night of the gunshot once again and everything was still crystal clear as the day it happened. What if they kicked me out? I can't survive out there on my own! They will catch me! Clereen's eyes began to water but then she remembered what happened earlier today.

"You were looking straight at the robot and you didn't do anything" "you didn't do anything" Amy's words echoed in her head. "What the hell are YOU going to do". I can't let them think I am a spy. I can't tell them anything else. If they find out about what I can really do then they will kill me for sure. This is no time to cry. I can't let them know. I'm not a spy. Clereen had made her decision just as Tails barged through the door with Knuckles not far behind her.

"Alright, you!" Tails said pointing at Clereen accusingly. Tails came right up to Clereen's face before yelling at her.

"Who are you? What are you? What are you doing here?" Tails fired questions at her but Clereen said nothing.

"Give her a break! Her- you know what happened!" Knuckles screamed at Tails, trying to reason with her but to no avail. Clereen was trying to hold in the tears until now but then she realised that this could be a good time to cry so she let go.

"SEE! She's still grieving Tails!" Knuckles yelled. Tails stepped back a bit and thought for a second.

"Well how do we know she isn't faking it?" Tails said and then she stared Clereen dead in the eyes. It wasn't working. She needed to cry more. Clereen didn't want to do it but she thought hard about what happened and how much she loved the professor. All those moments they had together. It worked and soon Clereen was balling. Tails took a step back and looked over at Knuckles for confirmation. Knuckles just glared at her with great hatred. Tails looked down with shame.

"OK" she said in a sad and quieter tone, unnatural for Tails, before leaving without another word. Knuckles looked at Clereen a little while and thought about talking to her but Clereen turned away in her bed. Knuckles then closed the door to leave her in peace. It had worked! Clereen didn't feel happy about it though. She hated trying to trick them but in the end it wasn't a lie. She did miss her father terribly and she did hate to think about it. She couldn't stand it but perhaps obscuring the truth would be enough to keep her safe, at least for now.

After a while Clereen found herself feeling hungry and bored. She wished to get up and wander around as normal but the thought of the others judging her every move made her anxious to even move a muscle. Clereen's stomach reminded her that she didn't have much choice. She got up and peeked around the doorway. Seeing no-one, she went down the corridor trying to be as quiet as possible. Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious to Knuckles, who had been keeping an eye on her bedroom for a while now, that she was acting strangely.

"Clereen"

Clereen squeaked and jumped at the sound of a voice amongst the quiet.

"Calm down, Clereen. It's just me" Knuckles reassured her. Clereen didn't feel quite that comforted by the thought this time.

"Clereen, what are you doing?"

"D-doing what?" Clereen answered nervously

"Come on, Clereen. What's wrong?"

"I" Clereen was about to confess but she told herself she mustn't.

"I'm hungry" Clereen said, trying to change the subject.

"You have never felt nervous about going to get food before" Knuckles said with a great deal of suspicion. He was onto her like a shot. Clereen tried to think of what to say but she struggled to think of anything reasonable.

"Is it because of what Tails said?"

Oh no. He's got it. Clereen hung her head in shame. She was about to beg for forgiveness when Knuckles put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's OK. She just doesn't understand. Don't let it upset you, OK" Knuckles looked so honest and sincere that Clereen felt like she couldn't interrupt. However, she also wasn't too sure whether he was referring to what she was thinking. He didn't seem to hate her. He must be talking about the part where she made her cry. Not about being a spy, surely. Clereen took a little sigh of relief at the thought that her cover hadn't been blown. What Knuckles was saying wasn't too far from what she was worried about so she figured that maybe she was trying too hard. It would be a better act the more casual she was so Clereen tried to put on a brave face.

Clereen's stomach growled, reminding her of what she got for in the first place. Knuckles smiled

"Well go on then, get yourself something to eat you idiot" Knuckles said playfully. Clereen smiled and wandered off to the fridge. Clereen passed Tails and she instinctively cowered and ran as fast as she could past her view. Knuckles came down the stairs soon after her and stared Tails down. Tails looked away anxiously and when they were gone she breathed a deep sigh.

Clereen decided to spend the afternoon watching TV. Hell, it is pretty much all she knew. She felt most comfortable when watching the TV and eating snacks. Anna soon passed on her way to another room and noticed her lying on the couch.

"Oh, Clereen. You're up!" She said with a joyful tone.

"Yeah" Clereen responded rather slowly.

"I haven't spoken to you a lot. Do you mind if we talk?" Anna said rather friendly.

"I'd rather not"

"Why? Are you upset about something?" How come everyone in this house could understand how she felt so easily?! Was she that easy to read?!

"No, I-I don't want to talk about it" Clereen honestly felt tired and just didn't feel bothered enough to go through more stress with trying to be social.

"Are you sure?" Anna said in a sweet comforting voice. Clereen turned to her to see her smiling back at her. Great, now she felt bad. Clereen wasn't bothered to talk but she was even less bothered to argue or put up with upsetting someone. She has had enough with being upset recently.

"OK" she sighed while still watching the TV. She tried to give every signal she didn't want to talk, in the hopes Anna would go away but she didn't. Anna sat down quietly next to her and waited, patient for a response. Clereen tried not to look at her but she felt guilty when she didn't.

"It's OK. Don't mind me. We can just sit and watch TV if you want" Clereen liked the sound of that. To be honest, Clereen barely knew anything about Anna so there wasn't any reason to be scared of her. She hadn't been saying anything against her, in fact, she was the only one to defend her from Amy's ruthless verbal attack.

The rest of the day actually turned out rather enjoyable. Anna made some conversation about the show that came on the TV and Clereen and Anna had a good chat about it. Then Clereen shared some snacks with her and they talked about that until, in the end, they were laughing and joking and feeling rather comfortable in each other's company. Anna got to cuddling and petting Clereen again. It was so fun for them both the first time and Clereen didn't have to stop her foot from kicking this time.

"The way you cuddle me is so gentle!" Clereen remarked

"And you are so fluffy and soft" Anna chuckled. Clereen's stomach growled once again and she grabbed a crisp packet to satisfy her cravings.

"Clereen, why do you eat so much? How do you get it in that little belly of yours?" Anna asked inquisitively. Clereen remembered her promise to herself and tried to keep it brief.

"I dunno. I have always been like that. I guess it was just the way I was born" Clereen said, trying to shove more crisps in her mouth than she could hold in her hand.

"You know, I barely get to see my parents anymore" Anna said, suddenly sounding much sadder. Clereen froze in her tracks and looked at her.

"Ever since they left me I haven't had very good self-control. I have been getting pretty fat."

"What?! You're not fat?!" Clereen retaliated. Anna looked over at Clereen with a solemn expression.

"I am!" Clereen said slapping her belly, trying to lighten the mood. Anna chuckled a bit but then frowned again.

"No really, Clereen. I am overweight. I worry about it sometimes. I don't want people to think I am greedy"

"I don't think you're greedy or fat!" Clereen said, starting to worry about where this conversation is going.

"I can show you my belly. Then you would agree with me" Then Anna pulled up her shirt a little to reveal a slight roll of fat.

"But that's nothing! If I didn't notice then no-one else is gonna notice!" Clereen said

"Do you really think so?" Anna said with pleasant surprise.

"Yeah" Clereen said.

"My parents have been gone so long" Anna whispered.

"And ever since they left I have been eating and eating" Then Anna turned to Clereen

"But now that all this has happened, although it has been scary, I feel more excited and happy again" Clereen noticed her eyes starting to water but she couldn't take her eyes off her.

"I'm just so lonely" Anna started to sob. Clereen shuffled uncomfortably, not knowing what to do. After a while of looking around, trying to think of a solution or hoping that someone would come in and help, Anna grabbed Clereen in a tight hug. Clereen put out her arms around Anna and closed her eyes. She sort of understood how she felt and could feel her pain deeply. It wasn't long before she too started to shed a few silent tears. No-one came to see the couple during their sad moment and that was probably for the best. The two quietly held each other in each other's arms until they were both ready to let go.

"I'm sorry I upset you. I know you have been through a lot recently but I just had to-" Anna tried to explain herself but Clereen interrupted her

"It's OK. Don't worry about it. I don't mind" It even surprised Clereen that this was true. This was a moment that, despite the bad last few days, she didn't want to miss.

"Thank you" Anna smiled

"For listening and-" Clereen put her hand on her mouth.

"Shut up" Clereen said before smiling

"Too much?" Anna asked cheerily

"Too much" Clereen confirmed.

"Let's watch some more TV" Clereen said as she noticed the electronic box glowing in front of her. Anna agreed and they continued as they were. Clereen watched with a smile. She felt like she had done a good deed. She hadn't tried to but she felt good for it nevertheless. Today hadn't been too bad a day after all. At least she had made someone else's day brighter. Then Clereen thought of something. Anna had clearly shared something very close to her heart. Perhaps it was time to expose something that hurt her to.

"D-Do you think I am a bad person?" Clereen asked while trying not to look at Anna.

"Oh! Of course not! Why would you think that?!" Anna said cheerfully, as if it was a joke.

"Well, I..." Clereen wasn't sure how to put it. Anna saw her face and realised she was being serious.

"Awww come on, Clereen. You're not a bad person. You rescued me, Tails and Amy earlier today!"

"But Amy said..."

"Oh! Forget what Amy said!" Anna dismissed the notion like it was as ridiculous as an icecream during the coldest winter.

"She's just a bully. She's been picking on you and she hasn't been very nice to me either"

"Has she?" Clereen said with genuine pleasant surprise.

"Yeah. I don't know what's wrong with her but she just doesn't seem to like anybody"

"Yeah" Clereen agreed in deep thought

"I'm glad it's not just me" Clereen was happy to find someone she could so openly talk to about all these things that had bothered her recently. She wasn't used to not having people to talk to. The professor was always there to talk to about anything and everything. She never felt like she needed to hide anything other than the occasional stolen cake from the fridge or little prank. It had been very taxing on her to hide all of this inside her and it felt like a million weights had been lifted from her shoulders.

"Besides, everyone has flaws. It's natural" Anna continued

"Yeah" Clereen agreed. Just then, Clereen got an idea.

"Like this!" Clereen let out a loud fart. Anna couldn't stop laughing

"Oh, Clereen!" Anna was barely able to say due to her cries of laughter. Then just when it seemed things would calm down a little, Knuckles entered the room.

"Oh god! Did someone just-" Knuckles was cut off by bellows of laughter exploding from both Clereen and Anna. Then Sonic entered the room.

"What's going on in here ARGH!" Sonic quickly covered his nose with both hands. Clereen and Anna laughed even harder and then Clereen continued to fart again.

"Oh god. I think I need to go to the toilet" Clereen said. Clereen then rushed off towards the bathroom while trying not to laugh anymore from worry of relieving herself a little too much. Anna continued to laugh so hard her eyes started to water once again.

"Glad to see you two are having a good time" Knuckles said sarcastically while trying to wave away the smell with his large white glove.

When dinner time arrived, Clereen was nervous but her nerves were easily dispelled when Anna offered to sit with her. Knuckles had made an effort to go around and make sure everyone was aware that Clereen had had a bad day. No-one reacted or talked to her over dinner except Anna. Clereen was glad there was no more drama throughout the day and she finally got the chance to relax a little. She had even made a new friend. Clereen slept very soundly that night as soon as she hit those soft white blankets. Tomorrow was another day.

The next day, Clereen woke up to deep thoughts again but she tried not to let it bother her. It didn't matter what she was worried about. For now things were fine and she should enjoy it while it lasts. Clereen got up and had breakfast with everyone else. Everyone was starting to get a little more used to Clereen's eating habits and didn't seem to mind. Anna was there to greet her in the morning to so Clereen didn't feel so uncomfortable anymore. Clereen was shining with a newfound confidence. Since she was in such a good mood, Clereen offered to tidy the bowls and plates from breakfast. However, just as she was about to do so and everyone had left the room, Amy approached her.

Clereen was suddenly startled by Amy staring her straight in the eyes "Don't get too comfortable. I know what you're doing" Amy accused with a snide tone. Clereen cowered nervously but tried to continue to clean up so as not to get too upset.

"You may have everyone else wading you hand and foot freak but you can't fool me" Clereen grew ever more anxious but tried hard to ignore her and carried on pilling up plates and bowls. Amy slammed the desk which made Clereen twitch.

"Are you even listening to me?!" Amy roared with anger. However, Anna heard the commotion and wandered in

"Amy, Clereen is sorting the pots. Come along, we need you to watch the TV for news" Amy turned away from Clereen and left the room in a huff. It was decided a while ago that people would take turns in keeping an eye on the TV news for further information on the chaos emeralds.

Anna looked to Clereen with concern. "Are you alright?" Clereen looked up at Anna and smiled a fake smile.

"I'm OK." Anna could tell she wasn't but she thought that maybe this time it would be best to leave her be.

"Oh, alright but if anything upsets you then don't hesitate to tell me, OK?"

"OK"

Anna then proceeded to leave the room. Clereen finished tidying the pots and went to find Anna. Anna was outside drawing. Clereen approached her and looked at the drawing. It was a pencil sketch of Cream picking the flowers in front of her.

"Wow. Did you draw that?!" Clereen said in true amazement.

"Why, yes. Do you like it?"

"It's like a real artist!"

Anna chuckled at Clereen's remark.

"I have been drawing for years. I guess I have gotten pretty good at it" Sonic was walking behind them about to pass when he stopped and listened in.

"My mum used to sit right here with me and teach me to draw the flowers"

"Oh I'm sorry. I don't want to bring up your parents again" Clereen said sounding worried

"Oh, don't worry about it. I sometimes get lonely but they are gone so often that I am also kind of used to it"

Sonic thought carefully. Where have I seen beautiful flowers before? He turned and wandered into the house, searching for something until he found a picture on the wall in the sitting room. It was a framed watercoloured pencil sketch of some red roses and yellow tulips stretching over a hill. In the corner it had the signature, 'Diane Cherryblossom 1988 Wishing mountains'. Sonic took one of Tails devices and flashed himself in the face before then scanning the picture. A map appeared and Sonic ran off in full speed.

After a few hours of learning how to draw with Anna, Clereen decided to go back inside and watch some more mindless TV. All this talk about proportions and pencil strokes had exhausted her. However, Clereen wasn't happy to find Cream using the TV. Cream was dancing in front of the TV, singing some made up song with a man in a purple dinosaur suit. Clereen watched for a while and grew increasingly irritated.

"What the heck is this?!" Clereen yelled with fury while throwing her arms out to emphasise her point.

"Oh that's Bumbee the singing purple dinosaur. It's a new kids show" Anna replied and turned to find Clereen looking rather angry.

"What kind of corporate rubbish is this?! Is this seriously how we are educating our kids nowadays?!" Clereen ranted to no-one in perticuler. Anna looked back at Clereen, surprised with how she suddenly sounded much older. Clereen turned to Anna

"Listen to it!" she yelled. Clereen and Anna went quiet to listen to the song.

"Happy happy happy happy friiiiiends!" It sang

"UUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!" Clereen groaned while pulling her ears. Anna was about to suggest something to calm her down but Clereen moved away to the TV remote and promptly changed the channel.

"Oh no! Bumbee! Please Miss Clereen, turn it back on!" Cream begged

"Trust me, it's for the best"

"Clereen! Cream was watching that!" Anna said, surprised that her new friend could be so selfish. Clereen turned back to Anna with confusion, wondering what she was going on about. Then Holly came in with a bunch of warm homemade pies. Clereen immediately lost interest in the TV and bounced over to the food.

"Pie?! Is there some for me?!" Clereen cried excitedly.

"Of course there is, honey. You just pick which one you want on the table there" Holly joyfully replied before swaying her hips out of the room. Clereen continued to pick a pie she liked from the table.

"Clereen what are you doing?! Sonic needs to have the best pie!" Amy complained as Clereen picked up a pie from the table.

"He can have the other one" Clereen said while picking up the pie.

"Sorry but that pie is for Sonic!" Amy said as she suddenly grabbed the pie and pulled it away from Clereen. Unfortunately, she pulled with an unexpected strength that caught Clereen off guard and she flew into the TV, cracking the screen and breaking the TV in the process.

"Are you OK?!" Anna said running to her aid.

"I'm fine surprisingly, especially with that terrible music off" Anna was about to help her up but then she looked down at Clereen with a stern look. Clereen looked up at her completely oblivious to what she was upset about. Then Cream started to cry

"Now I can't watch Bumbee!" Cream sobbed out loud.

"Oh for crying out loud" Clereen said with frustration.

"Look what you've done, Clereen!" Amy scolded but Clereen was in no mood to back down this time.

"What I did?!" Clereen stood up and pointed at her. Anna tried to defuse the impending fight by telling Clereen to calm down but she didn't listen.

"You were the one who threw me across the room!"

"You were trying to steal Sonic's pie!" Amy yelled. Clereen came closer till they were face to face

"All the pies were the same and since when do you get to decide what pie Sonic gets? Isn't that HIS decision?!" Clereen yelled in her face.

"Clereen, Amy please!" Anna tried to get their attention but to no avail.

Just then Tails entered the room. "What on earth is going on here?" Tails said with authority. Clereen and Amy both yelled at Tails at the same time trying to argue their corner.

Tails then yelled at both of them "shut up, both of you! Now, Anna what happened"

"Clereen broke the TV and now Cream is crying because she can't watch her favourite program" But before Anna could finish Clereen interrupted

"Amy threw me into it and all for a stupid pie!" Clereen shouted

"That pie was for Sonic and you know it!" Amy yelled back

"What the heck is all this yelling about?!" Knuckles wandered in.

Clereen and Amy began to yell at each other again before Knuckles interrupted.

"Oh no you don't" Knuckles said while pulling Clereen towards him and further away from Amy.

"Good idea" said Tails and she pulled Amy back

"What the fuck are you doing? I can handle myself!" Amy screamed

"Watch your language, Amy. Cream is here remember" Tails scolded. Clereen just tried to struggle out of Knuckles arms.

"What the heck has gotten into you, Clereen? I thought you were better than this" Clereen took that to heart and stopped struggling. Clereen was quiet for a while before talking again.

"B-But it's not fair!" Clereen cried to Knuckles but he just shushed her. Clereen obeyed and stood there quietly. Amy took a little longer to quiet down. Clereen started to feel insecure again once the initial anger had settled and she tried to turn and leave but Knuckles blocked her. Knuckles held onto her hand to reassure her. Clereen looked up at him and then looked down in shame before turning to see Amy finally cooling off.

"Alright, from the beginning. Clereen, what happened?" Knuckles looked at Clereen but soon realised she wasn't in the mood to talk.

"Well, you fat pig! What do you have to say?" Amy taunted but Tails soon stepped hard on her foot. Clereen soon started to cry and curled up into Knuckles chest. Knuckles put his arm around her and glared at Amy.

"Amy, what the fuck?!" Knuckles responded

"KNUCKLES! CHILD IN THE ROOM!" Tails had to shout even louder with everyone already yelling to be heard.

"I think I will take her out" Anna said while guiding Cream through the door to another room, Cream still wailing as she left. Clereen hung her head in shame.

"Alright, Amy" Tails said with great authority and a willingness to get things done.

"Stay quiet and let Clereen speak. Either that or we will have to take you away and lock you up in a room to calm down like a toddler. Do you want that?" Amy just glared at the floor without another word.

"OK, Clereen. Do you think you can talk now?" Knuckles asked as he gently loosened his embrace.

"I-I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make Cream cry but it wasn't my fault I broke the TV I swear!" Clereen begged.

"Carry on" Knuckles encouraged her and she continued

"I came in and Cream was watching her show. I didn't like it and tried to switch the channel. Then the food came in. Holly told me to pick anyone I wanted so I picked the one I liked the most. Then Amy demanded she have it for Sonic. When I said that he could have the other one she grabbed the pie off me and flung me into the TV, breaking it and making Cream cry. Then the argument started"

"Are you OK?" Knuckles said with concern

"Yeah I'm fine...Somehow"

"Sounds to me like you were both inconsiderate. You didn't think about how Cream felt and upset her even before the TV broke and Amy upset Clereen by snatching the pie instead of just talking to her and agreeing on something" Tails deduced.

"I'm sorry" Clereen said in shame.

Tails sighed "It's OK, Clereen. I forgive you. This is the first mistake you have made and you did apologise but I think you need to apologise to Cream rather than us" Clereen nodded in agreement.

"You got to be kidding me!" Amy cried in retaliation

"As for you!" Tails said turning to Amy and standing on her foot again

"Did you have to stand on the same foot twice?!" Amy complained

"You not only were completely unreasonable and refused to calm down, you also insulted and psychically hurt Clereen. I am NOT going to take this lying down. You are definitely getting punished" Tails said sternly as a teacher would say the bully child in class.

"No spa treatments, no make-up, no hair dryer"

"What?!" Amy cried in disbelief

"You hurt Clereen again and you will see it can get much worse" Tails said before she finally let go of her and walked over to Clereen.

"Are you alright?" Tails said with her hand on Clereen's shoulder. Clereen nodded.

"Are you sure?" Clereen thought for a moment before shaking her head.

"You better keep her company for a while. I think she is a bit shaken again" Tails advised Knuckles before leaving them alone. Clereen was still upset but she was surprised at how gentle Tails was. All she had seen of her so far was the aggressive and accusing side of her. It was nice to have her being nicer for once. Amy just stormed off into the garden to have some time to herself.

Just then, Sonic arrived back from his little trip. He held some beautiful red roses and yellow tulips in a bunch. Feeling rather pleased with himself and totally oblivious to the mayhem in his absence, Sonic wandered into the house looking for Anna. He found them in the bedroom and quickly noticed Cream's face was pink from the tears.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry. Am I interrupting something?" Sonic said, turning to leave.

"No it's OK. The TV broke so Cream couldn't watch her show"

"Oh" Sonic sympathised. He proceeded to walk in with his bunch of flowers

"I brought some flowers. For...you..." Sonic said, getting more bashful as he spoke and beginning to blush.

"Oh, thank you" Anna said as Sonic split the bunch and gave some to Anna and Cream. Anna gasped when she took a closer look.

"Rose's and tulips! They are my favourite!" Anna said with glee and she hugged the flowers up to her chest.

"Thank you mister Sonic" Cream said, also very happy with her flowers but before Cream and Anna could turn back again to see him Sonic was gone in a flash of blue. Sonic breathed a sigh of relief as he got a good distance away down the corridor. He wandered into the sitting room where he noticed Tails sitting on the couch. She was sitting with her head in her hands and she breathed a deep sigh. Sonic wandered in.

"Hey, Sonic" Tails acknowledged him as he came in. Sonic stopped and looked at the couch and then back at Tails

"It's OK. Come and sit here with me" Tails said while moving aside. Sonic sat down next to Tails.

"It's been busy the past few days, hasn't it Thomas?" Sonic nodded

"Do you really have to call me that?" Sonic said, a little fed up.

"If I don't call you Thomas sometimes then when can anyone call you Thomas? You must never forget your real name, you know" Tails said

"I know. I just wish I was..." Sonic went quiet

"I know Tom" Tails said with her hand on his shoulder.

"But don't forget. You are not a bad person. You try your best and that is all anyone can hope for"

"But what if my best isn't enough? Knuckles has his strong spiked fists and traveling skills, you have your devices but what do I have? I'm just a fat coward" Sonic said, staring at the floor.

"Oh not this again" Tails said with more concern that anger

"You can run at the speed of sound! Is that not enough for you?" Tails tried to persuade him but he just sighed deeply

"Oh now don't you feel guilty about that you idiot!" Tails said, almost laughing at him getting so easily upset

"You've got to stop beating yourself up!" Tails continued in a very gentle softness as Sonic looked up at her

"I love you Sonic. Just the way you are. I told you this. You may not be the best when things need to be done but you always try to help. You are the kindest most gentle creature I know" Tails said as she stroked his back and smiled. Sonic couldn't help but smile a little back, despite the tears in his eyes.

"I think you need some burgers and chips" Tails said as she patted him on the back and proceeded to get up off the couch and stretch her legs. Sonic smiled and also got up and stretched his legs.

As they wandered out the room, Sonic spoke "Can I have some chocolate cake for dessert?"

"Don't push it" Tails said in a suddenly more stern tone.

"OK, OK!" Sonic quickly went back on his comment when he noticed the way the conversation was going. Tails just laughed.


	7. Chapter 7: To Adventure Or Not

Clereen woke up to the sound of everyone rushing around and she quickly fell off the couch. What's going on? She thought. She went to investigate and she saw Tails, Sonic and Amy rushing around back and forth collecting strange metal objects and devices. Clereen saw Knuckles approaching, holding a pile of heavy metal objects in his arms, obscuring his sight quite badly.

She touched his shoulder to get his attention and asked "What's going on, Knuckles?"

"There hasn't been any another messages on the TV about the chaos emeralds so Tails has come up with an idea to use an advanced tracker to find them and save time" Clereen gasped in surprise and excitement

"But Tails doesn't have all the materials he needs here so we are looking around to find anything that could help"

"Oh! Can I help?" Clereen cried excitedly at the prospect of helping

"Do you know what we need?" Knuckles asked

"Computery things! I can find that!" Clereen cried excitedly but before Knuckles could explain she needed a better idea than that she was already gone. Knuckles sighed and carried on with his job. Clereen went searching, prowling around the house like a sneaky wolf in search of rabbits. She found various bits and bobs and, having absolutely no idea what half of them were or whether she should take them, she decided to bring them back anyway. It was an important cause right? They wouldn't mind surely. So Clereen came back with her goodies and waited for all the others to catch up. Once everyone had dumped what they had in front of Tails working out his plans, Tails inspected the items in the pile carefully.

"It's good but we are still missing some vital parts" Tails said sounding disappointed.

"So what do we do now?" Clereen asked

"Good question" Tails responded and she thought for a while before speaking again.

"If I can get that computer working then we could do some research into areas where we can find some spare parts to finish the tracker" Tails said sounding disappointed. What? That old computer in the cellar that Tails was messing with earlier? It can't be that hard to fix something like that. So Clereen went to investigate the cellar, which had been adapted into a spare room for the gang to hide from human sight. It wasn't long before Clereen yelled back to them from the cellar stairs.

"I fixed it!"

"You what?!" Tails yelled, baffled. Nobody knew what she was talking about so they all went to investigate. They found the old computer up and running with Clereen looking very proud of herself with a welding iron and a screw driver staring right back at the glowing screen. Knuckles quickly grabbed the welding iron off her.

"Clereen?! What are doing? You can't just weld things without any experience you will hurt yourself!"

"Err I think she has had experience, Knuckles" Tails said as she looked into the computers wiring to see what she had done.

"What?!" Knuckles yelled in disbelief before bending down to look inside the computer.

"Look, see? The welding on this is perfect" Tails said pointing at the machinery. Knuckles just pulled away and stared at Clereen in disbelief. Clereen smiled back unsure what to make of this attention. Was it not normal for her to know these things?

"This is some complex wiring and fixing. She had even used new parts to-" Tails started to explain. Clereen soon realised that perhaps this was not good for keeping her little secret so she quickly changed the subject.

"Weren't you here to search for something important?" Clereen reminded Tails

"Oh yes of course!" Tails took to the computer and it wasn't long before she found what she looking for.

"Ah here! We can go to this scrapyard not far from here. There seems to be plenty of remnants of machinery there from the local computer shops and factories. We should find what we need easily" Tails said happily

"Right then, what are we waiting for? Let's go and get them!" Knuckles suggested and they all bounded over to Tails airplane but when they got there Knuckles pushed Clereen aside.

"Oh no. Not you" Knuckles said as he climbed into the plane

"What? Why?!" Clereen said in utter disbelief

"Don't take this the wrong way but you are not exactly fighting material Clereen" Knuckles tried to explain

"You will just slow us down" Tails agreed

"WHAT?!" Clereen yelled in frustration before they quickly took off without another word. After Clereen regained her balance from the plane take off, she kicked the ground and growled. How could they leave her here? Like she was some kind of child?! She had been there before and she had saved their skin. Now they are telling her she can't come?! Clereen paced around angrily while thinking about it.

Anna came wandering in and immediately recognised her anger. "What's the matter, Clereen" she enquired, sounding rather worried about what the answer could be.

"It's not fair!" Clereen bellowed to Anna before continuing to pace with frustration

"I saved your lives just a few days ago and now they're telling me I am not safe to go with them? Can you believe that?!"

"I'm afraid they may be right, Clereen" Anna said with all the softness and sympathy she had

"What?" Clereen answered sounding more bewildered than angry this time

"It's not that you don't have the ability to fight, Clereen. It's you. You are careless and clumsy. Would you know what to do in a fight?"

"No" Clereen said in shame as she realised she had a point. Anna sighed as she saw how upset she was. She knew how she felt.

"Don't take it the wrong way, Clereen. They just want to protect you" Anna said as nicely as she could

"Is that what your parents said before they left YOU?"

Anna just stood shocked in silence with such a blunt comment. Clereen looked up at Anna, right in the eyes, and she had never looked so serious.

When she heard no response Clereen said "Exactly" Then Clereen left the room to watch TV. Anna just stood there wondering what on earth she would say that for and what could she have possibly meant. It was so hurtful to say something about her parents so bluntly but then again, she also didn't understand how Cream felt earlier. It was true Knuckles had told her that she hasn't lived with many people for her whole life but could this really be because of that? Anna decided that maybe she should lay low for a while and decided to get on with her own thing as well for the time being.

After a while, Clereen felt guilty for being so angry, especially with Anna. She had spent the time doing a little doodling. Although she wasn't perhaps as artistically good as Anna, she did like to doodle sometimes to just be creative and sometimes to get her feelings out. She had borrowed the colouring crayons given to Cream to draw but she never used. She had found herself drawing a picture of herself inside a dark cave, so dark you couldn't see either end. There was dripping water in the cave and she tried to colour it blue but all she could think about was red.

The sight of the red made her sweat. Then she coloured the droplets from the roof red. Then she coloured it red and then she coloured it red and then she coloured it red. Clereen's tears poured down her face with frustration as she tried to stop her hand from colouring but she felt compelled to keep going. Then she coloured the blackness of the cave red but all it did was mix with the black making a murky gross dark red that could only be described as like mud with blood and an oil spill stirred inside like a disgusting witch's concoction. Anna watched, horrified. It almost felt like the Clereen she knew wasn't there anymore. Then Clereen screamed before weeping on the paper, her hand cramping.

"I'm sorry, Clereen. It's OK. Don't cry" Anna said as she rushed in to her aid.

"No I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things about your-" Anna hushed her quiet.

"Don't worry about that. You were upset. I know you didn't mean it"

"But I don't even know if I-" Clereen looked at Anna's honest face and decided to try and build up the confidence to again hide the truth. This was not the time. She went quiet and smiled.

"You wanna watch TV? I think I need it" Clereen sighed and Anna agreed. Just before Anna left to follow her, she glanced at the drawing and ended up staring at it for a while more than she expected before going to play with Clereen. It was several hours before the others came back and Clereen was ready to greet them.

"So did you get what you needed?" Clereen asked Tails as they came in.

"Afraid not. We didn't have much time before it went dark and had to come back. We found some of what we need but there is an important part we just can't seem to find"

"Can't you create the machine without this part?" Anna asked

"But then it wouldn't be important" Clereen explained

"Unfortunately, Clereen is right. I just have no hope of this tracker working properly unless I have this part" Tails said sounding utterly disappointed. Both Clereen and Anna felt bad for her as it seemed important to her. It was late and everyone was tired so they all went to bed. Clereen was tired as usual and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, Clereen woke up rather early as she found it difficult to sleep. She couldn't help but still be bothered about not being involved. They were struggling. She couldn't just watch as they failed. If she could just get them to take her then surely she could help. She just had to prove it to them. Then she heard everyone moving around outside her room. They were trying to be quiet but Clereen's hearing was sharp. Clereen knew what they were doing. They had been unsuccessful the first day so they were getting a head start. Clereen then had an idea, she tip topped quietly to see them through her doorframe. She could see shadows passing the light coming through the door and blocking it from time to time and she could hear their faint footsteps but she couldn't see them. Once everything was quiet, she snuck by them and downstairs.

Clereen then got to Tails' plane and found a large empty bomb storage hatch at the bottom, perfect for her to hide in. She got a screw driver and got to work unscrewing the hatch. However, it was too noisy and she had to hide as Tails soon came in to fix the loose hatch. Then the others all gathered and quietly entered the vehicle. As she saw the vehicle about to leave, she knew there was only one choice for her now. As the plane took off, Clereen grabbed the bottom of the plane with her arms and legs and screamed as it took off with her on it. Luckily her, the screams were drowned out by the sound of the engine.

By the time the engine had quietened down so did Clereen. She took a deep breath and tried not to panic. Then she looked down. That wasn't a good idea. She wanted to scream again but she stopped herself by putting one hand on her mouth. But then she soon realised this gave her less grip and so she quickly grabbed on again. Clereen whimpered defencelessly as she soured through the skies at great speed. Luckily it wasn't long before they got to their destination and they landed the plane. Clereen let go and crashed into the scrap metal underneath the plane landing spot. Everyone turned around and gasped as Clereen pulled herself out from the heavy pile of car gas vents. Knuckles was the one to ask the burning question on everyone's mind.

"Clereen?! What the fuck are you doing here?!" He exclaimed in shock. Clereen just laughed nervously. Boy was she in trouble. Tails looked at the plane and then back at Clereen.

"Don't tell me you..." Tails asked Clereen. Clereen started to sweat anxiously and hung her head in embarrassment.

"I rode the plane, yes" Clereen said as she rubbed the back of her neck, fidgeting nervously.

"WHAT?!" Knuckles yelled with utter amazement and shock.

"I held onto the bottom of the plane as you flew off, heh" Clereen tried to smile but found it very difficult to fake. The others just stared at her but before anyone could make a proper response, Sonic suddenly turned around as if he heard something. Clereen and friends all looked in that direction but saw nothing but then Clereen looked up and gasped. Everyone turned to see where she was looking and followed her eyes but it was too late. A bomb dropped from the sky and landed directly where Clereen was. Luckily, Clereen was able to use the scrapyard junk as cover and she delved deep into it before the explosion hit. Everyone else avoided the explosion just in time.

"CLEREEN!" Knuckles yelled but Clereen emerged from the crater soon after and came running to them as fast as she could before hiding behind them panting heavily.

"OH SWEET LORD MOTHER OF FUCK!" She screamed after it had dawned on her just how close she was to death. Then she turned to see a figure behind sonic.

"Look out!" Clereen yelled but it was too late. Sonic was quickly captured by a long metal arm on a little green flying machine out of the sky. For a second, Clereen just stood in fear but then she remembered the promise she had made to herself. She couldn't give up now. She had to prove herself. If she wanted to help them, she had to learn to stand up and fight. Then Clereen continued to use a weak laser out of her hand to cut the arm off the machine holding Sonic, quickly freeing him. She stumbled a bit after using it.

"Clereen! Are you ok?" Knuckles asked

"A little dizzy but I'm fine" Clereen responded as she shook her head to try and shake away the dizziness. Just then, the machine shot a thin wire that wrapped around Clereen. Before Clereen could try to remove these wires she felt a surge of electricity through her body. She screamed in agony as the energy fried and burned her skin. Her body violently threw itself all about as her muscles contracted. Then it stopped just as suddenly as it came and she hung breathless.

"CLEREEN!" Knuckles yelled.

"HOOO ho ho ho!" They heard Eggman's laugh echo in the area. Tails and Knuckles sneered in rage and Sonic stared in fear.

"Want her back? Come and get her!" He taunted. Sonic leaped at the wires ready to cut them with his sharp spines but only got electrocuted as he touched them.

"You idiot! Don't attack him!" Knuckles yelled as Eggman fried Clereen and she screamed in agony once more before then stopping again.

"The more you try to stop me the more your little friend here gets fried!"

"You fucking monster!" Knuckles yelled in frustration and disgust.

"Wait, I have an idea! Get in the plane!" But before Tails could continue she gasped as she saw nothing but scraps where her plane had been.

"HOOO ho ho ho! Already took care of it remember?" Eggman teased.

"The explosion. He wasn't aiming for Clereen! He was aiming for my plane!" Tails yelled in amazement at this plan unfolding

"How are we going to get to him now?" Sonic cried. Eggman continued to laugh a jolly laugh but then suddenly his laughing stopped when he noticed his electricity malfunctioning.

"Huh? What's this?" Eggman looked over to Clereen to see energy glowing from her and interfering with the circuits. Eggman frantically tried pressing every button to fix it but it was no use and it soon fizzed out, releasing Clereen from her capture. Knuckles caught Clereen in his arms as she fell limp to the ground.

Knuckles held her softly and whispered to her "Please, Clereen. Stop. You have already got attacked three times now. Please, we just want to keep you safe. I know you want to help but stay out of this!" Knuckles urged her. Clereen slowly shuffled out of his arms and stood up. She stood there, quiet for a while gathering her breath.

"Clereen?" Knuckles said sounding worried with her lack of response. She then turned to Knuckles and suddenly he saw her wise beyond her years.

"No" She said, plain as day. Knuckles stared back at her in shock. Then Clereen proceeded to aim a beam straight at Eggman's flying machine's engine. The machine went down nice and easy. Clereen watched it burn and fall like an eagle watching its rival fall from the sky after a fight. She then turned to Eggman, where he quickly pressed a few buttons and whizzed away in his sphere shaped craft without saying another word.

Everyone turned to stare at Clereen. Clereen stood and stared back before smiling. "Now who looks weak?" Clereen said with confidence.

"Well I can't deny that" Tails sighed as she wandered off towards the broken flying machine to examine it.

"What are you saying, Tails?!" Knuckles said in shock

"Well it's not like we can stop her. She hitched a ride on our plane. Oh by the way, don't do that again, Clereen" Clereen began to laugh nervously before then losing all her energy and collapsing on the floor.

"Clereen?! You OK?!" Knuckles yelled as he picked her top half up from the ground and found she was out stone cold.

"She has been frazzled several times by high voltage electricity. I think it's safe to say she needs a good rest" Tails pointed out. Knuckles understood and continued to pick her up in his arms gently.

"But how are we going to get back home?" Sonic cried in his usual worried tone

"Don't worry. It seems there are plenty enough parts here to make that tracking device AND make an even better plane"

"Great but how are we going to get them back to the mansion for you to work on them genius" Knuckles exclaimed. Just then, a black pickup truck appeared and Anna popped out.

"I thought you could use some help moving all those parts so I called up my dad to ask him if I could call for- Oh my god! What the heck happened?!"


	8. Chapter 8: The First Vision

After a good rest, Clereen found herself lying in her bed thinking once again. How long could she really keep this façade? But she brushed the thought from her mind yet again. As long as nothing was happening, there was no reason to worry other than to stress herself. Besides, if she thought about it too much she might blow her cover. The less she thought about it, the better she could pretend there is nothing to hide.

Clereen wandered around, trying to find the others. She could hear them talking in the cellar so she went to see what was going on. Tails was on the computer doing some research with Knuckles looking on. It took a few seconds before Clereen recognised the picture on the screen. It was her home! This should have been a happy moment but instead it was terrifying. Clereen tried to stay calm.

"What are you doing?" she asked, while desperately trying not to look like she was panicking like she was.

"We are looking into Eggman's location and we found this place. It seems to have some connection with him" Tails explained while not looking away from the screen. Clereen's face turned pale. Eggman?! If they thought she was connected to Eggman then they would definitely think she was a spy and kill her for sure!

"What's this? Experiment 412" Tails enquired curiously as she brought up a text profile with a picture. Clereen looked for a quick solution and found a nearby cup of coffee. Clereen quickly pretended to fall into the cup and pushed it directly on the desktop computer fan breathing holes. The computer sizzled and popped before the screen turned off and the computer smoked from the holes.

"Clereen you fucking idiot!" Knuckles yelled. Clereen tried to smile and laugh but she was very nervous and embarrassed. Even if it was done on purpose, Clereen didn't want to be in trouble with Knuckles.

"I told you that would happen" Tails sighed as she picked up the fallen cup. Despite doing it on purpose and for a good reason, Clereen couldn't help but feel very guilty.

"I'm sorry" she apologised

"It's OK, Clereen. Accidents happen" Tails said

Just then Anna ran into the cellar exclaiming "Sonic has found something!"

Tails immediately stood up. "Where?" Tails asked purposefully

"In an abandoned building site not far from here" Anna replied. Tails and Knuckles quickly rushed off

"There are a lot of abandoned building sites around here" Clereen pondered out loud before realising they were fast getting away

"W-wait for me! What is this about?" Clereen yelled as she tried to catch up to them

"I sent Sonic out with the tracker to try and find any chaos emeralds in the local area" Tails explained as they ran

"Oh yay!" Clereen cheered and quickly got in the new tornado

"I am coming this time and can't stop me!" She exclaimed with pride

"we know Clereen" Knuckles sighed

"Can I come to?" Anna asked

"Yeah, sure. There is plenty of room now!" Clereen smiled

"No. It could be dangerous" Tails said while starting the engine

"Oh no not THIS again!" Clereen cried

"If you let me come then Anna has to come to!" Knuckles stuttered as he was about to argue but he soon realised it would be fruitless

"OK fine! Just stay close OK and hurry up!" Knuckles eventually agreed

"Wooooo! Flight buddy!" Clereen and Anna cried.

"Uuuugh" Knuckles sighed with his head in his large gloved hands. Amy also followed suit and got in the new advanced plane.

"It will give me something to do, I guess" she moaned

It wasn't long before they arrived at their destination. The building area was covered in soil and gravel and the entrance was made of wood supports. On top of the area there was a giant blue plastic veil over the top that had several strings loose so the corners flapped in the wind.

"Why is it underground? It looks more like a mine shaft than a building" Clereen commented

"It was an underground science lab for researching artefacts recovered from the ground so I guess it's a bit of both" Anna explained

"Oh OK" Clereen responded, happy with the answer. Then she noticed the others going on ahead.

"H-Hey wait for us!" Clereen ran ahead and then suddenly stopped as a thudding headache came out of nowhere. For a split second she saw what seemed like a million images. As she held her head with the headache consuming her she tried to get her bearings but then, as the headache got stronger, everything around her started to spin and change shape as if they were melting and moulding into something else. She could hear the voices of her friends getting fainter and she screamed as the headache became unbearable.

Then suddenly she saw her friends entering the building. There was someone in the shadows who was watching them and waiting to pounce. The stranger jumped out to strike them as they found the chaos emerald. Then her head hurt again and she winced in pain. The next time she opened her eyes everything started to mould back into the right place. She could see the other things as if she was there and yet, she was exactly where she last stood before the headache had started. She looked around to get her bearings. Yes, she was definitely in the same place. She hadn't moved an inch. She soon realised her friends were crowded round her. They stared at her as if she had somehow had an accident.

"Oh, Clereen! Thank god! Are you OK?!" Anna yelled, seemingly very worried. Clereen's head still hurt a little from before and she stumbled trying to get up.

"Oh, Clereen! D-don't overdo it OK?" Anna cried nervously as she got up. Clereen was so confused. What just happened? Who was it she saw and why?

"Take her back to the plane if you must. We need to find this chaos emerald" Knuckles said as he started to walk away, further into the darkness of the sheltered structure. But before Clereen could properly think about what she saw, something became very clear to her.

"NO!" Clereen yelled as she ran in front of Knuckles using her super speed.

Knuckles flinched a little as she appeared in front of him "I forgot you could do that"

"You can't go in there!" Clereen exclaimed

"Why Clereen?" Anna asked. Clereen paused and thought

"I don't know...but you have to listen to me!" she said as she put her hands on Knuckles shoulders holding him back.

"Oh that's great!" Amy said with great sarcasm

Knuckles pushed her arms out of the way."Clereen. I don't know what's wrong with you today but something is clearly wrong with your head. Just go home and go to bed. We need to get this chaos emerald before Eggman does" Knuckles tried to push past her but she got in the way

"But I'm being serious!" Clereen yelled

"Clereen. You can't be serious if you have no idea why you want us not to go in there!" Amy exclaimed. Clereen paused to think. She had a point. How on earth could she convince them of the danger. There is no way they would believe her if she told them the truth. Nevertheless, the truth was all she had so it would have to do.

"But I saw it" Clereen cried after him as he tried to walk forward

"Saw what?" Amy antagonised

"I-I don't know. A stranger! I saw a stranger. They are in there!" Clereen tried to explain but even she wasn't sure what happened anymore.

"Go home, Clereen. You need some rest" Knuckles said as he continued forward with Sonic, Tails and Amy following close behind.

"You believe me don't you?" Clereen desperately begged Anna but Anna wasn't sure how to respond. Clereen knew she didn't really believe her. Clereen turned around and watched sadly as her friends abandoned her into the darkness.

Anna stayed by her side and put her hand on her shoulder "Let's just go home, Clereen" Anna tried to say but Clereen shuffled out of her grip and moved forwards. She walked ahead of them all and started to look around the darkness. Wary of what was there. Knuckles sighed as he saw her pass him. After a while of walking nothing seemed to be happening. Clereen wondered for a while whether she really was just over tired. Amy came over to a lighter spot where the tracker beeped louder in Tails' hand.

"We are getting closer and no stranger in sight, Clereen!" Amy said sternly as she turned to Clereen to make a point. Clereen was looking down at the floor but at that very moment she suddenly looked up into the darkness. It was where the supports should be but it was pitch black and impossible to see anything there. However, everyone noticed her staring intently at this exact spot as if something was there.

Meanwhile, a shadow stared back. 'She is looking straight at me! How is she able to see me from there?' the figure thought as she stared straight back, motionless. If I make a move, will she come after me? No. Of course not. It's pitch black. There is no way she could see me from there. I must be seeing things.

The others stared but Amy wasn't impressed. "Oh come on, Clereen. We have had enough of this! There is nothing there! Stop trying to get all the attention!" Amy scolded

"I found it!" Tails exclaimed further ahead. Clereen soon realised that while she was looking at this figure she couldn't watch where everyone else was so she suddenly turned to see Tails. However, in doing that she took her eye off the figure for a second and that was just long enough. The figure made its move and tried to pounce on Tails but Clereen jumped into it and pinned the stranger down. Everyone watched in awe as Clereen and this stranger rolled around on the floor. They rolled into the light as Clereen gained the advantage and pushed the stranger on the ground with both arms and legs.

Suddenly, the figure became clear but it wasn't anyone Clereen knew. It was a white bat-like humanoid creature with large bat-like ears and wings. It wore a revealing yet solid pink bra and black leggings with strong white and pink boots to match. It seemed whatever it was, it had some good fashion sense. Clereen even noticed lipstick on its lips. Clereen was surprised by seeing such a strange creature that she, for a split second, let down her guard. Then the womanly creature took advantage of this moment and kicked her in the face to make her quick escape. Clereen put her hand to her face and growled as she watched the creature turn back with a cheeky grin on her face.

"Not this time, babe" she said before leaving.

Clereen wanted to give chase but Anna and the others pulled her back. Tails turned to find the chaos emerald and picked it up. The others got distracted by Tails and so lost grip on Clereen. Clereen ran forward but stopped when she couldn't see the stranger outside. Clereen looked down on the ground. She was sure that stranger was who she saw in her vision. She had to find her. She may be important for something. Why was she looking for the chaos emerald as well?

"Clereen. Forget it. Let's go home" Anna tried to comfort Clereen

"I'll make my own way home" Clereen said before rushing off at lightning speed. Clereen didn't want to go on the journey home and be made fun off. She didn't want the fuss or the questions. She just wanted some time to think. She wandered around the rooftops of the skyscrapers, just thinking for a while before heading back home.

Things were quiet for a while so everyone relaxed a little. Things had been stressful over the last few weeks so everyone decided a break was needed. Two chaos emeralds had been confirmed already so they were ahead of time. Everyone was cooling down, that is except Clereen. Clereen just couldn't seem to settle so she took this opportunity to drown out her troubles the only way she knew how, food. Everyone just accepted her eating habits by now but Knuckles could tell this was worse than usual.

When the night came, Clereen lay in bed, still thinking. There was only one cure she could think of for such worrying and it was food. Clereen snuck out of the bedroom where she slept and continued to scoff herself late into the night until her stomach hurt. She felt sick and yet she couldn't stop herself. She kept going and going until she heard something familiar behind her.

"What are you doing, Clereen?" Knuckles asked with concern as he came forward out of the shadows of the dark kitchen and into the light of the fridge. Clereen turned around with tears welling in her eyes. She clutched her stomach as it gurgled angrily at her. Clereen then looked at some cake she was in the middle of eating and got ready to take another bite.

"No!" Knuckles pushed the cake out of her hand.

"Stop Clereen! You can't eat anymore!" The truth of his words became more apparent as her stomach complained yet again. This caused her to break down into even more tears. Knuckles gave a little soft sigh and knelt down to hold her to his chest. He put his arms around her and stroked her head gently.

"I just miss him so much!" Clereen sobbed as she held him tightly

"I know" Knuckles whispered as he pulled her a little closer to his heart

"I'm sorry" Clereen sobbed

"For what?" Knuckles asked as he looked down at her eyes filled with buckets of tears. Clereen looked back and screamed in frustration before curling into his chest again. Then her stomach gurgled and she winced in pain.

"Let me get you some medicine" Knuckles said as he pulled himself away from her and went to one of the kitchen cupboards to bring back a box of pills. Clereen quickly swallowed the pills and clutched her stomach as it screamed at her again.

"It will take a while before it works. Do you want me to stay with you?" Knuckles asked. Clereen nodded.

"OK, let's watch some TV" Knuckles smiled as he picked her up with various food crumbs and sticky half dried liquid all over the floor. He quietly took her to the TV where they watched anything that was on to pass the time. They stayed quiet for a while, Knuckles keeping Clereen close to his side for comfort. Clereen just leaned on him and tried to ignore her pains. They later started to talk about the shows on the TV a little as they watched. During a program they both agreed was particularly boring, Knuckles asked

"Clereen? Do you think you could tell me what has been worrying you so much recently?" Clereen looked up at Knuckles with a rather clueless expression.

Knuckles continued "Come on, Clereen. It isn't just your father is it?" Clereen looked down, feeling a little guilty. Knuckles had always been there for her when she needed it so why couldn't she be honest with him? But even so, she couldn't bring herself to trust him. She couldn't trust anyone. After all, they knew her as she showed herself to be. Not the real her. Nevertheless, she found it very difficult to resist his sweet face when he was being kind to her.

"I don't know. I...I've just been...So much has happened recently" Clereen tried to explain.

"A bit too much?" Knuckles asked. She smiled and leaned on him. Knuckles could read her like a book. He had spent the most time with him of all her new friends, not even counting the time they were alone together in the forest just outside the city. He just had this way of somehow seeing straight through her every time. Clereen never felt so comfortable with anyone as she did with Knuckles. Knuckles stroked her head just the way she liked it.

Clereen somehow felt compelled to continue "Knuckles?"

"Hmm?" Knuckles responded as he looked down at her

"Do you like me?" Clereen asked

"Of course I do" Knuckles answered without any hesitation

"But why?" Clereen asked back just as quickly. Knuckles looked at her and then looked away as he spoke

"Well, you are kind, sweet...full of energy...you can be a bit of a handful sometimes but..." Knuckles tried to explain like a list in his mind

"You really think so?" Clereen looked at Knuckles with a concerned look and Knuckles just laughed

"And why shouldn't I, Clereen?" Knuckles chuckled

"I don't know. I just...feel like...sometimes. I am not what you think I am. Like I'm not being honest enough" Clereen admitted

"Well, what have you got to hide from me, Clereen? I already know you raided the fridge" Knuckles joked

"I'm serious, Knuckles" Clereen said as her voice started to wobble

"I know, I know" Knuckles said as he stroked her head again

"Everyone feels like that sometimes, Clereen. Am I really a nice person? Would my friends really like me if I did this or that? But none of that really matters because you can never truly hide yourself, Clereen. The real you is always there and real friends will still see it" Knuckles explained while not looking at Clereen. Clereen looked down and thought. Was it true? Was Knuckles trying to tell her something? Did Knuckles already know? Clereen smiled. Why did it even matter? This was something she hoped she would never lose.

"How is your stomach feeling?" Knuckles asked as he looked down at her curled up on his lap

"Oh I forgot" Clereen said while looking down at her belly

"It must be working then. I think you better get some sleep" Knuckles said. Clereen nodded in agreement and Knuckles took her to bed.


	9. Chapter 9: Spiritual Nightmare

Having explored most of the local area, the friends were struggling to find more options for finding chaos emeralds. However, Tails managed to find a potential spot by doing some research into the local area with some loose magazines and newspapers lying around. She found that there is an abandoned building a distance away from the city, known for rumours of spiritual activity.

"Chaos emeralds are drawn to ancient structures and places with spiritual significance" Tails explained as she showed them the page with the picture of the building

"But what if the chaos emerald isn't there?" Amy said sarcastically

"It's not a direct source but it's worth a shot" Tails responded

"Besides, it might be an interesting little trip" Tails continued with a smile

Clereen gasped loudly "and we can have a PICNIC!" she screamed with excitement

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Knuckles agreed

With the new tornado, it was a safe and quick journey to the location. There was also lots of extra seats so everybody could come to. When they got there everyone was eager to stretch their legs.

"Finally, we can do something. I was so bored!" Amy cried

"Finally some fresh air!" Clereen cried with glee. Anna and Clereen gave deep breath in and out of the cool breeze blowing around them. Clereen looked at the grass beneath her and felt content and calm for the first time in a while.

"Well me and Sonic are going in" Knuckles said before turning towards the run down building. It was some sort of elaborate church with some rather detailed carvings and designs.

"Bye!" Clereen sang as she watched him go but then suddenly she felt a great cold shiver down her spine. Then a great feeling of dread hit her.

"What's the matter, Clereen? You cold? The wind just got a little chilly just now didn't it?" Anna tried to talk to her but Clereen was focused on one thing. She quickly turned to see Knuckles getting ever closer to the ruined building. Then she put her hand to her head as it started to spark with pain. Everything started to spin as the pain got worse and she clenched her face and fist.

She screamed as the pain reached its peak and suddenly she appeared in a dark room. This room felt like a cold pod and she saw her friends all fallen around her. She examined every one but they were all out cold and had terrible cuts and bruises all over them. She then heard a laughing and she looked to see where this came from. She saw a little window in the darkness of the room and peered inside to see three white figures.

These figures she could see clearly this time but she still had no idea what they were. They seemed just like floating white wisps, two smaller and one large. Then they turned around and they all had a mean grin on their faces. The large one had the worst grin of them all with sharp teeth reaching from ear to ear. There was only one thing she could call them and it was ghosts. Then, just as quickly as she went in, she came out of it.

After a while to get her bearings and to shake off the dizziness, she soon realised that she was still there with Anna and Amy. They were looking down at her on the floor as if she had fainted and to be honest she wished she had. Anna looked very worried but Amy just stared down at her disapprovingly.

"Are you OK? You blacked out again" Anna cried with fear as she held her up from the ground. Clereen sat up and quickly darted her head towards the door of the building. She could still see Knuckles and Sonic there so she called to them.

"No! WAIT!" Clereen screamed after them

"Oh no. Not THIS again!" Amy said with great distain as Clereen ran after them

"You can't go in there!" Clereen yelled as she caught up with them

"Oh, Clereen" Knuckles said with more concern than anger as he turned around to see her

"If you go in there you won't come out! It's possessed!" Clereen screamed

"Oh for crying out loud will you stop with all this stupid crap! Nothing is going to happen, you drama queen!" Amy argued

"But what happened at the underground building site. I predicted that didn't I?" Clereen desperately tried to reason with them

"That was just co-incidence! It's not like you're psychic!" Amy yelled back

"But I-" Clereen tried to continue to Knuckles interrupted

"I'm sorry but I have to agree with Amy on this one" Knuckles said. Clereen's jaw dropped in shock.

"Finally!" Amy yelled

"You've had a rough few weeks. You are probably tired, Clereen. Just stay here and relax, OK?" Knuckles said as he turned to continue on.

Clereen couldn't believe her ears but she couldn't help but wonder. What if he was right? Am I really just imagining it? I don't want to look like a drama queen. So with that, Clereen walked away and joined Anna and Amy with their picnic. Tails was too busy with a gadget as usual to bother too much with food. Anna left her a sandwich to nibble every now and then between fiddling with her tracker. Clereen desperately tried to enjoy herself but she just couldn't stop worrying. She kept looking back at the building over and over again to check if Knuckles and Sonic where coming out but they never did. Anna could see she was upset and tried to comfort her. However, she also became concerned after it had been a whole hour.

"Sonic and Knuckles haven't come back yet. Should we go and look for them" Anna suggested to Tails

"Oh for god's sake. There are probably fine!" Amy complained

"I'll go and look for them" Tails said after looking at Anna and Clereen's concerned faces. Tails got up and wandered into the building. 15 minutes later and she hadn't come out either.

"That's it! I can't take it anymore!" Clereen said as she jumped up to go in after them. Anna tried to tell her to stay but she didn't try very hard as she could soon see she had made up her mind.

"Don't let the LIES hit you on the way out!" Amy cried to her as she entered. Clereen felt a very cold shiver all the way through her body as she went through the large archway inside but she kept going. The further Clereen went inside the building, the more unsettled and frightened she became. By the time she was well inside, she had lost almost all her confidence but she had to keep going. If anything had happened to them she HAD to save them!

Just then, she saw Knuckles and Sonic up ahead. Her heart felt like it lifted with relief and she was about to call over to them. Then she suddenly saw some white hands grab them to the side and before she knew it they were gone! Clereen ran over there as fast as she could but she couldn't get there in time before they were pulled into the wall. Clereen felt a strong feeling of hopelessness. She couldn't save them! But before she could react to that, Tails arrived.

"Clereen? Have you seen Sonic and Knuckles yet?" Tails asked, more urgently than she had expected. Clereen just shook her head. Tails sighed and looked around anxiously but as she did, Clereen saw long white hands coming from the wall towards her. Clereen screamed and grabbed her arm but the white arms had already grabbed Tails' legs. When Tails saw the hands she turned to Clereen and screamed.

"Oh god, Clereen, you were right!"

"I don't want to be right!" Clereen cried in anguish as she pulled on Tails harder but it was no use. The arms were too strong for her and Tails was fast being pulled back through the wall.

"Clereen, you've got to listen to me! The magazine said something about an ancient stone hourglass being connected to the spirits appearance. You have got to find that hourglass! HURRY!" Tails said and with that she was gone. Clereen just stared at the wall before breaking down into tears. But she didn't have time to think as the hands came for her to. But she was too fast for them and she ran at full speed out of the way and down the corridor.

Meanwhile Amy waited, tapping her feet impatiently.

"UGH! I can't wait any longer! Why am I the only one who gets anything done right around here?!" Amy exclaimed in anger as she stormed into the building. Anna tried to stop her but quickly gave up when she remembered that once Amy had made a decision, it was not wise to talk back. Not too long after Amy went in, Clereen came out sweating in panic. She looked around the outside of the building desperately for any clues.

Anna approached her "What's the matter, Clereen?" Clereen quickly turned to her with an panic stricken face

"Do you know if there is a stone hourglass around here?" Clereen asked very intently

"Well, there is a stone statue that looks like an hourglass over there" Anna looked ahead and Clereen could see the stone hourglass. Clereen rushed over there as fast as she could go and Anna ran after her. When Anna got there Clereen was standing there examining the hourglass and then she hung her head.

"Why didn't I stop them?" Clereen said under her breath.

"Clereen?" Anna answered concernedly

"This is all my fault" Clereen said with tears in her eyes as she looked at Anna before running back into the building. Anna yelled after her but it was too late. She was long gone.

Meanwhile, Amy was still looking around for the others and getting pretty irritated.

"UGH! This place is so dusty! I can't believe I have to walk around here to save their asses because they are all so fucking incompetent!" Amy yelled to herself. Then she noticed a large mirror in the hallway in front of her.

"Ah! Finally! Time to see if my hair has suffered any damage. It better not or I am going to kill them!" Amy said as she approached the mirror. She looked in the mirror and started to arrange her hair while mumbling about dust and spider webs. She looked away to brush some of the hair by her ear and coughed at the dust but when she looked back it wasn't her reflection she saw.

"Why, hello there" The white grinning figure in the window said as it stared back at her. Amy's scream could be heard echoing throughout the building's halls and corridors.

"Amy?!" Clereen screamed as she heard it and she rushed faster further into the darkness and depths of the maze of halls. Clereen headed for where she heard the noise and she soon came across a large room. Something felt different about it so she entered it and she soon saw a pedestal with a circle. She looked at the hourglass in her hand and put it nearby to see if the size matched and it did. Clereen could also see a moon symbol in the circle. She had already noticed the hourglass had a sun on one side and the moon on the other. The answer was obvious but just before Clereen could put it down, she could feel a presence behind her. She quickly turned around to see Amy standing there. She gave a sigh of relief.

"Oh. Thank god! I thought-" but then Clereen stopped as she looked at Amy. Amy put her hand out and spoke.

"Give me the hourglass. I know what to do to save the others" Amy said or at least it sounded like Amy but something didn't seem right. Clereen stared deep into Amy's eyes and she soon realised that they were empty. No not empty. They were clouded with fear hidden behind a misty blank gaze.

"You're not Amy" Clereen said and she quickly went to put the hourglass on the pedestal but Amy grabbed her arm. When Clereen turned around she saw a creepy grin that could haunt nightmares. Clereen went to use a lazer beam out of her hand but stopped as she couldn't hurt her. If the ghosts were possessing her then she was still there. So Clereen used a blast of energy to blow her out of her grip and then she put the hourglass on the pedestal with the sun facing up.

Suddenly she could hear many voices screaming as if burning alive and then her friends fell out from the ceiling above onto the floor in front of her.

"Sonic! Knuckles! Tails! Oh thank god!" Clereen cried with ultimate relief.

"Clereen!" Sonic cried before giving her a big hug and the others soon followed, all except Knuckles and Amy. Clereen smiled a gleaming smile and couldn't help chuckling a little. Knuckles just looked on and smiled. A white figure flowed out of Amy's mouth and she collapsed but Knuckles caught her before she fell. Amy looked towards Clereen and smiled a little as well or at least it seemed like it for a second or two before she pushed Knuckles away. She got herself up and stood there with her arms crossed.

"I think it is safe to say their isn't a chaos emerald here" Amy said, looking at Tails accusingly

"Errr yeah. She's right. The tracker isn't picking up anything. Sorry everyone" Tails admitted

"Who cares?! Let's go home! I'm going to need a lot of comfort cake!" Clereen said. Everyone agreed and they all walked safely out of the building. When they came out Anna was still there, worrying herself to death and staring at the entrance to the building's halls. When she saw them come out together she leapt up to see them.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Anna cried

"Forget it. We're too tired" Amy said sighing as they all meandered to the Tornado mark 2. Anna just stared unbelieving. Was no-one going to tell her what happened? Anybody?

That night, Clereen lay awake in her bed, thinking. She found she just couldn't sleep with her mind so busy so she decided to get up. She went to a nearby window and climbed out and onto the roof where she was surprised to see Sonic already sitting there so she went to join him. Clereen lay on her back leaning on the roof and stretched her arms and legs before letting her arms rest behind her head and one leg bend over the other. Sonic's position was less glamourous with him just lying there on his back like a pancake.

Sonic spoke as she approached "Oh, Clereen. Didn't expect you to be here." He said nervously

"I bet you didn't" Clereen chuckled jokingly

"I just like to come up here sometimes and just stare at the stars. There is a pretty clear view from up here" Clereen explained while looking up at the starry night sky. Sonic looked up at the stars with her and jumped when she spoke again.

Clereen turned to Sonic before asking "So what are you here for?"

"Oh, I just like to sit here and think about things...sometimes" Sonic said in a shy tone as he fiddled with his fingers

"Yeah" Clereen answered as she awed at the stars

"Thank you for what you did today. Everyone really appreciates it" Sonic said

"You really think so?" Clereen asked, surprised with a hint of curiosity

"Of course they do. You saved our lives!" Sonic pointed out. Clereen just blushed.

"Yeah but I never really thought 'I am going to triumphantly save the day!' you know" Clereen admitted

"When it comes to it, you never do" Sonic answered without much hesitation.

"Trust me. I know" Sonic smiled at Clereen before quickly turning away in embarrassment.

"But that doesn't mean it means any less" Sonic said. Clereen thought for a while before looking back at the stars and gazing again at their beauty.

"Looking at the stars at night like this, makes me think just how small we really are..." Clereen paused for a while before chuckling as she said

"It sounds pretty cheesy when you say it that way but...it just puts things into perspective sometimes. When you need it most" Clereen said. Sonic looked at her as she gazed at the stars but instead of being happy or peaceful, she looked sad. A kind of sadness that seemed deeper than Sonic could possibly comprehend. Clereen then snapped out of it and then looked to Sonic and smiled again.

"I would suggest to lay here for a while but I think it's about to rain soon" Clereen said as she got up and started to walk away.

"How do you know that?" Sonic asked with surprise

"Because of the air is getting colder. Plus those clouds are a big give away" Clereen said as she pointed to the dark, gloomy, looming clouds not too far away.

"Oh" Sonic said as he realised he had missed them and he got up to join with her to get back inside.

"Sonic. I..." Clereen started but then changed her mind.

"Nevermind" she said and she smiled as she watched Sonic bounce away.


	10. Chapter 10: Bad Romance

Clereen had never realised Sonic had such a soft side to him before her night with him on the roof. It made her have a new admiration for him. Once that idea had entered her head she started to grow strangely curious about him. She noticed his waddling walk similar to hers and it made her feel warm inside. She suddenly found herself starting to feel rather giddy around Sonic and found it increasingly difficult to speak to him as the days went by. She wondered if she was perhaps starting with some kind of sickness or if she hit her head too hard the last time she tried to climb the tree in the extensive garden of the mansion.

She asked Knuckles about it, him being the one she trusted the most with most of her emotional and embarrassing problems. Like when Clereen managed to get gummy worms stuck way up in her nose after a dare from Amy but that story is for another time. Knuckles managed to get some medical information out of Tails without raising suspicion and did a few tests but Clereen didn't seem ill at all. As she was being examined, Sonic passed by the doorway of her bedroom she was sitting in. Knuckles looked on at Clereen and sighed as he saw her blush like a radish when she saw him. He found a fire inside him growing.

"There's nothing wrong with you, Clereen. Get out of my sight" Knuckles said with little distain. Clereen stared back at him. She could tell his tone of voice was rather aggressive and she hadn't done anything to deserve it. At least not that she knew of.

"Go on! Get the fuck out!" Knuckles shouted as he shooed her away like a mangy stray mutt caught in the kitchen dumpster. Clereen considered it best to get out as fast as possible. She didn't want to cause any unnecessary arguments. So she continued down the corridor to meet up with Sonic. Soon she found herself not able to think of anything other than Sonic. It didn't dawn on her as an obsession but more like a fondness she never knew.

She noticed she suddenly felt much more awkward and aware of people's feelings towards her than she had done in the past, even in the same conversations. Something weird was going on but all of those thoughts were blurred by the thought of Sonic's beautiful and surprisingly soft quills. She knew they were because she was curious enough to touch them in his sleep. A part of her screamed to her that this was kinda creepy but she couldn't help herself.

Meanwhile Sonic had taken to try and avoid her as much as possible. It was weird how she suddenly wanted to always be around him like a fly to rotten meat. She was just always...there. She had even started to butt into his conversations with his other friends and had become some sort of bodyguard. Although it was a nice sentiment, it was also a curse as it always made things really strange and awkward around him and Sonic was never good with awkward.

The more and more Clereen spent time with Sonic, the more and more Clereen noticed a feeling of distain between her and Knuckles. Clereen wasn't sure what she had done at first so she thought there would be no harm in asking. After all, Knuckles had said he admired her honesty in situations like this.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Clereen? Can't you leave me alone? I'm busy" Knuckles protested

"You see?! THIS is exactly what I am talking about! Every time I am with Sonic you throw some kind of hissy fit and tell me to bugger off! And don't you give me that bullshit! You were never busy before, Knuckles! You always had time for me! What the fuck have you got to do anyway, Knuckles? Find the chaos emeralds?! You know we haven't any success with those for weeks now!" Clereen yelled accusingly, which made her feel surprisingly brave and accomplished like she was an interrogator in a police drama. Suddenly she felt like she had a little insight as to how Amy and Tails feel when they shout at people although obviously for completely different reasons.

"And you have never acted like such a smartass before, Clereen! So what if you are hanging out with Sonic! I don't give a fuck! He's my fucking rival. I don't fucking care what happens to him! And what he hell happened to your language?!" Knuckles replied with increasing anguish

"This isn't about Sonic or my language! This is about me! You are clearly changing the subject!" Clereen exclaimed while pointing to herself to accentuate the point but then she stopped for a minute and stood back, silent in thought. Knuckles didn't say anything, dreading what she was thinking of. Then Clereen gave him a cheeky grin which made Knuckles feel rather unsettled.

"Oooooh I get it...YOU ARE JELOUS! OH MY GOD!" Clereen announced loudly to the world as she made her great discovery.

Knuckles blushed bright red. "I don't know what the fuck you are talking about!" Clereen found it hilarious and couldn't stop laughing in his face until eventually Knuckles yelled.

"I don't have to deal with this shit!" before leaving the room in a huff but Clereen only paused for a second or two before bellowing in laugher again and yelling down the corridor to him

"YOU SO JELLYYYYYYY!"

Later that day, Tails started to tell Clereen about how she should be cutting down on cake as she was taking a slice of chocolate cake from the fridge. Without thinking about it too much, Clereen found herself saying.

"I can eat what I want!" She felt rather proud to finally have the courage to say something like that to her as it had been bugging her something chronic these little pep talks she would have when she was just trying to enjoy herself.

It had never crossed her mind much more than a minute before but now it seemed every other word of Tails' had some hidden meaning and it pissed her off. Like she was any better! She needed someone to tell her what HER faults were. Then she wouldn't have any room to judge. That comment blew up into a full heated argument and Knuckles not being in the best mood locked Clereen in her bedroom to stop the fight.

This had never happened before in the whole time she had been here and it bothered her a LOT! This reminded her of the times when she was punished for bad behaviour with her father and she hated it. She wasn't a child anymore! She screamed with frustration late into the night and never really apologised for it either. For some reason, she didn't feel guilty. Not in the slightest. At least, that is what she told herself whenever she thought about an apology.

She had also come to spend more time with Amy. Fulfilling dares and watching more drama shows on TV. It had never interested her before but now watching someone get what they deserved seemed so much sweeter. She couldn't imagine why she felt bad for them before. Why should she? They had caused the problem so they should be punished. Isn't that how it always works?

One day, Clereen found Sonic trying to sneak a hamburger out of the fridge. 'This is my chance!' Clereen thought to herself.

"I LIKE FOOD TO!" Clereen screamed as she tried desperately to grin in a friendly way but ended up looking more like a crazy stalking ex girlfriend. Clereen quickly got out a slice of cake to prove to him the truth of her words. Not that it was needed as she had forgotten everyone was already very aware of her eating habits.

"errr..." Sonic just stared back at Clereen, not knowing how to respond. Sonic wasn't great at conversation at the best of times but this was turning out to be a very awkward situation. Sonic then heard someone approaching.

"Tails!" Sonic exclaimed while also trying to stay quiet.

"Sonic, where are you?" Tails said with a stern tone.

"He's here!" Clereen yelled out to her, trying to be helpful. Sonic tried desperately to signal to her to shut up but it was too late and Tails came round the corner into the kitchen. Tails gave Sonic an angry and accusing stare.

"I told you, no more hamburgers! You are fat enough already!" Tails exclaimed while grabbing the burger and putting it back in the fridge. Clereen watched Sonic's sad face as Tails dragged him back around the kitchen corner. Clereen hung her head as she realised she had made a stupid mistake.

"Oh no! What have I done!" Clereen exclaimed to herself before an idea sparked in her head.

"I know!" Clereen yelled to herself before rushing off to find Holly, the family chef. Holly was swaying her hips and hoovering the sitting room carpet, singing with her usual vigour and energy.

"Holly! Holly!" Clereen called with earnest as she bounced towards her and tugged on her dress.

"Yes, yes, whatever is the matter child?" Holly responded after she turned the hoover off.

"I made a terrible mistake and I need you to help me make a cake to make for it. Pleeeeeeeeeeease!" Clereen whined with urgency.

"Alright, alright child. Don't you lose your soft brown fur now. Just let me finish the hoovering and we can get started" Holly answered but Clereen wasn't in the mood for waiting.

"But I have to make it NOW or he will hate me forever! Holly, pleeeee-he-heeeease!" Clereen said sounding more and more desperate.

"Well, I'm sorry little one but you are just going to have to wait. This room ain't gonna clean itself, you know" Holly said, disappointed she couldn't help.

"Oh DAMN IT!" Clereen screamed in anger before rushing off towards the kitchen. If Holly wasn't going to help then she would have to do it herself.

Surely there was some cooking recipe book somewhere she could follow. Clereen looked in almost all the cupboards in the kitchen before finally finding an old folder with lots of laminated recipe lists in it. It was clearly well used as the pages were yellow with age despite being in plastic cases and even the binder to the folder was bent making it hard to turn the pages.

"Ah! This one! It's perfect!" Clereen exclaimed as she saw a three layered chocolate cake with toffee cream filling.

"Sonic loves chocolate and toffee!" she said gleefully

So Clereen got to work on the cake with great speed. Clereen had the image in her head of what it would look like. It would be a grand chocolate cake with green icing on and around it to represent the expansive garden around the mansion. It would have the mansion in the middle with the spot Sonic and Clereen lay on the roof nice and big. Then she would have a little Sonic laying on the cake roof with her beside him. This was going to be amazing and it would remind her and him about how important that talk was for their friendship.

However, Clereen knew nothing about cooking and didn't even know what ounces and tablespoons were. It wasn't even easy to know the ingredients as some of the words were half rubbed away with age so she had to improvise quite a lot. She had seen Holly just chucking it in there without reading any stupid instructions so surely it can't be that hard, right? WRONG! Clereen couldn't even understand the instructions correctly.

"Wait I was supposed to stir the chocolate when melting it? You didn't tell me that earlier! Now the edges are burnt ARGHHHHH!" Clereen grew increasingly frustrated with every mistake she made but she tried to keep her cool. If she could just get this thing in the oven things would be sorted. At least that was what she thought. Despite finally getting the damn thing in there, Clereen couldn't shake her impatience. 'Well, if it takes an hour on 180 degrees then it should take 5 minutes on 230 degrees right?' Clereen thought to herself as she turned the oven temperature up.

Clereen brushed her head with a great sigh of relief as she sat down on the kitchen floor near the oven. She had some time to relax now and think about the decorations she was going to make on the cake later. But then she soon realised that she would have to create the decorations beforehand otherwise the cake would be going cold. Cake is OK cold but it would be even better if she could give it to him while it was still warm, fresh from the oven.

Clereen got to work on creating the little sonic figurine made of icing but the icing was too liquidy and whenever she tried to create his face it melted into his chest making him look like an old, creepy, grandpa rat.

"NO!" Clereen screamed in anger. By now she was getting in the realms of frustration where there was no return. Her visions of a perfect cake was fading along with her hope of making up with Sonic. As she started to really lose her hope she lost even more of her patience and temper. She tried again and again screaming in anger at every time she failed to make Sonic's beautiful face. She was screaming so loud now that everyone could hear her across the entire mansion and she was completely unaware of the little spectating audience that was growing outside the kitchen. No-one would dare go in since she was in such a bad temper they were surely to get yelled at if they even stepped foot into her anger bubble she had put herself in.

No-one that is except Holly. Holly felt the most sympathy for her. She felt guilty knowing that she had gone to her for help earlier and she had refused so she volunteered to go into the kitchen to talk to her. Holly came in cautiously, creeping her head round the kitchen door in the most gentle approach she could muster.

She gently mustered "Clereen. Are you doing OK in here child?" Holly said

Clereen was still struggling to get the face of Sonic right and now it barely resembled any creature that existed on this earth. She didn't turn away from her efforts as she yelled "OH so NOW you want to HELP?!" with the most aggressively sarcastic tone ever. Clereen was going to continue her protesting rant when Holly's eyes quickly caught sight of the fire coming out of the oven.

"OH MY GOODNESS GRAVY! CLEREEN, SWEET HEART GET OUT OF THERE!" Holly cried as she ran in to stop the flames.

Clereen carried on with her rant completely unaware of what was going on "NO! I AM GOING TO MAKE THIS CAKE NOW! YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE!" But before Clereen could continue she suddenly started coughing from the black fumes coming out of the oven and soon saw the flames. Clereen screamed in panic before Holly hoisted her up and threw her out of the kitchen like a bomb about to detonate.

Clereen saw everyone else crowded around and they helped her up onto her feet. She stared unbelieving at the spectacle around her and they all just looked at her with sorry eyes. She then turned as they all heard the fire alarm blaring away but something was off. Clereen realised she was in an entirely different world to everyone else. She hadn't even heard the fire alarm at all until now.

"We were calling for you. Why didn't you answer" Tails asked with concern and earnest. Clereen didn't respond. What could she say? That she didn't hear them? Surely there was no way she couldn't have but she didn't remember them saying anything.

Holly finally managed to get the fire out with the fire blanket and a sand fire extinguisher and came out telling the others it was safe. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, except for Clereen. Clereen couldn't stop thinking of the cake and what had happened. Clereen rushed inside as soon as she said it was safe and looked around. The smoke had mostly dispersed by now but there was still enough to get her to cough.

Holly tried to encourage her to leave because of the smoke but Clereen ignored her as she saw the figure of Sonic icing she was making. She stared at it for a good while, while everyone watched quietly, tension all around the room. Clereen looked back at the sooty black Holly and everyone's sorrowful faces and guilt swept over her.

Clereen burst into tears "I'M SORRY! IT'S ALL MY FAULT! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Clereen squealed as Holly came to hold her softly in her large hard working arms. The others also sympathised and gave her the typical ooohs and aaahs and 'it's not your faults' whispered softly in her ears along with pats on the back and head. Amy excluded of course as Amy wouldn't ever do that sort of thing.

"I JUST WANTED TO MAKE A CAKE FOR YOU, SONIC!" Clereen cried out loud.

"What? Why?" Sonic asked with confusion

"BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!" Clereen screamed but desperate in her emotions it took her a moment to notice how strange that sounded but once she had she wished she had never said it. All Clereen could see were stares of accusation and she grew bright red before rushing off to her bedroom crying.

After a while of sobbing into her pillow, Clereen heard knocking on her bedroom door.

"Clereen? Can I come in?" It was Knuckles voice and it was comforting for her to hear. Clereen went and braced herself with a deep breath before opening the door.

"Do I look awful?" Clereen asked Knuckles as her slightly swollen wet face waited solemnly for his response.

"What are you talking about?" Knuckles said with genuine confusion

"My face is all red and swollen isn't it" Clereen said, still sniffly from the tears.

"Don't be stupid. You look fine" Knuckles said rather gently which made Clereen feel a little better. She smiled as she moved aside to let him into the bedroom.

"But you never used to care about that before" Knuckles said as he turned around when she had closed the bedroom door.

"Well I do now" Clereen said, feeling a little irritated by what the connotations of that statement could mean before then softening to thought that she was over-reacting. Even so, she found it more difficult to apologise this time, as if it would mean the loss of her dignity and individuality.

"How do I look?" Clereen asked Knuckles honestly

"Like a Clereen who has been crying" Knuckles answered as he put his arms around her for a hug. This hug felt so much better than previous hugs after it had felt so much earned. Clereen was about to worry about the way he said that but she brushed the thought to the back of her mind. There were other things more important and she wished she had thought about that sooner. The thought made her eyes water again. She made the effort to force the words out she so dreaded.

"I'm sorry" Clereen said

"I know. It's OK. You don't have to say it if you don't want to" Knuckles said with a smile

"But it's kinda wrong if I don't" Clereen said while shuffling uncomfortably where she stood

"Well, it is appreciated" Knuckles said. Clereen looked up at him and smiled.

"I'm sorry to. I've been so immature the last few weeks" Knuckles said

"It's OK" Clereen answered with all honesty but then her face fell.

Knuckles noticed "What's up?" he asked

"I have just been feeling so...conflicted recently. What is wrong with me?" Clereen asked, looking concerned.

"You're a teenager, Clereen" they heard Tail's say as she came into the room uninvited

"Having arguments and fluctuating emotions is just what teenagers do" Tails explained

"I didn't exactly invite you in, you know" Clereen pointed out at Tails with a little distain

"You see" Tails said and Clereen shuffled on the spot when she realised she was right. She hadn't really thought about it but that was sort of unnecessary and rude of her to say like that.

Clereen sighed but found it difficult again to apologise.

"It's OK. Don't worry about it" Tails said with her hand on Clereen's back. Clereen smiled.

"Dinner will be ready soon. Do you want to help set up the table? I think Holly would appreciate it" Tails suggested. Clereen nodded and they both left the room. Knuckles was left alone but he smiled to himself. Then he sighed and shook his head before then also leaving the room.


	11. Chapter 11: A Creature of Many Secrets

The last few days, Clereen had taken to going on walks by herself. She didn't feel the need to tell anyone as she didn't want them to try and restrict her like before. And besides, that would also ruin the point. Recently, she had felt the need to spend some more time alone. Despite, getting to know her friends rather well over the last few weeks and loving their company, she also felt like it was like being in another world. One where she didn't belong.

She would often wander the roof tops of the skyscrapers so she couldn't be easily seen and she would just think. Then walk, then think, then sit, then walk and then think again. It seemed she could never run out of things to think about. There was always something. Even if it was the same thing over again. A greater being, the universe and what it meant to be alive. There were so many things people didn't understand and perhaps never truly will.

One day, on the way home after some thinking time, she noticed a strange sensation within her and stopped. There was something nearby. She turned and saw a jewellery shop and quickly discovered in the window that there was a large green jewel. Clereen gasped as she realised it was a chaos emerald! She was about to get it when she remembered she wasn't supposed to be spotted. But how was she supposed to get this chaos emerald without being spotted? She considered going to tell the others but if she did, she was likely to forget where the shop was.

She didn't know her way round very well and the only way she could get back home was because she could walk on the building tops. There was a great view from way up there and the richer district looked much different from the rest of the city. It was easy to identify the mansion from any distance this way. She looked over at the mansion she now called home and then looked back at the shop. It was so close and yet so far. This was her chance to help. This was up to her!

She used her super speed to rush into the shop and grab the jewel before heading back straight away. When she got home she felt pretty proud of herself. She started to think that maybe she could leave this as a surprise to make the event even better. However, as she started to walk closer to the mansion to find the others, she soon realised something was up. She looked down and could see her body was glowing yellow. This only usually happened when she used her powers. It never happened on its own! Then she noticed the chaos emerald was also glowing. Was she reacting to the chaos emerald? NO! I can't let them see this! What on earth would they think I was then?!

Unfortunately, it was too late. Tails was in the garage with her tornado and was already staring at her with surprise and then suspicion as she edged closer. Clereen, not knowing how to react, started to sweat and ran as fast as she could to her bedroom. She put the chaos emerald away in a little blue cupboard. She looked for a while and smiled at the other two chaos emeralds, one purple and one a cloudy white before closing it. When she closed the cupboard the glowing stopped. At that very moment, Tails burst into the room with Knuckles following close behind.

"I knew it!" Tails said as she stomped closer to Clereen in anger.

Tails got right up to Clereen's face before yelling "What are you hiding?"

Clereen quickly responded "I don't know what you are talking about" while making sure to use her body to block her vision of the cupboard behind her.

Knuckles pulled Tails back "Woah woah woah! Hang on a minute! What is going on?" Knuckles yelled to Tails

"Why doesn't anyone see this?! She is clearly hiding something!" Tails yelled accusingly as she pointed at her

"What? Another cake? Come on, Tails. What could Clereen possibly have to hide?" Knuckles explained to Tails.

Just then, Amy came rushing in "Guys, there is something on the news!" she said, looking desperate to rush off in another direction. Tails looked back at Clereen and glared at her. Clereen just moved her head back nervously and turned as she bumped it on the cupboard. Just then, Tails looked behind her and looked back at her, seemingly even more suspicious. Clereen tried to smile but failed miserably.

"Come on! I think you are going to want to see this!" Amy said, impatiently. Tails slowly forced her glare away from Clereen and they all went downstairs to see what was going on. When they got downstairs they heard the TV on loudly in the sitting room and they rushed to see the screen.

"Breaking news just in! The Hidden Gem Jewellery store was robbed only minutes ago. The CCTV footage shows a strange yellow light entering and leaving the scene" Clereen watched in horror as she saw her own yellow glowing light on TV. She had hoped that she would be in and out before anyone noticed but it seemed her timing was off. Tails immediately, identified the yellow glow and started her jabbing stare back at Clereen. Clereen looked back nervously as she knew what she was thinking.

"It's not what you think!" Clereen cried desperately while backing away from the peering eyes of her friends

"What am I supposed to think this is then?! Enlighten me!" Tails yelled with fists clenched and ready for action. Then Tails remembered what she saw earlier.

"The cupboard. What's in the cupboard?!" Tails interrogated Clereen. Clereen knew what her next move was and she was determined to stop her. Clereen tried to run to the cupboard with her super speed.

"Sonic, grab her!" Tails yelled. Sonic obeyed and rushed after her with his sonic speed. Clereen was just a little ahead but Sonic was also just as fast and grabbed her arms from behind as she reached the cupboard. Tails and the others caught up soon after. Tails walked ahead of everyone with a strong sense of purpose, heading straight for the cupboard.

"No wait! Please! I can explain!" Clereen tried desperately to get them to listen but Tails and others ignored her pleas. As Tails turned the door knob of the cupboard, Clereen soon realised there were no other options left. Clereen let out a burst of energy which knocked the others back. Then she used this time to grab the chaos emeralds. Then she handed out the green one to Tails.

"I got this for you" she said as her eyes weld up with tears.

"Then why are you hiding them?" Tails yelled back

"You can't take these!" Clereen said as she held the purple and white gems tightly in her arms.

"Wait, what?" Tails soon realised that those emeralds were not the colours she knew.

"Purple and white?" Sonic asked as he also realised. Then Clereen started to glow again.

"I know you are looking for chaos emeralds and I want to help I really do...but these are not the emeralds you are looking for. They can't be!" Clereen begged to Tails.

"Clereen is right" Knuckles said as he came closer, looking more shocked and staring at the emeralds.

"But if these are not the chaos emeralds then what are they?" Amy asked

"And why do YOU have them?" Tails added while further staring down Clereen. As they spoke, Knuckles got closer and stared right into the gems.

"The soul stones of the ancients" Knuckles whispered to himself.

"The what?" Amy responded

"These are the chaos emeralds but these are from the ancient tribes who used to care for the Master Emerald. The story is told in the ancient tomes on our island structures. The ancients were a tribe that existed long ago and are said to have created the chaos emeralds and the Master Emerald. They are also said to have had the power to travel to different dimensions and even different times. Then one day they swore to protect the land and they put their spirits into magical gems. Once these gems are put together, they can give the one who found them ultimate power to protect our world. There were more than seven chaos emeralds as they were created from the spirits of the ancients but only seven were awoken. These must be some of the others!" Everyone just stared in silence at this news. Knuckles looked very confused as he continued further.

"But how is this here?! They were said to be lost in another dimension ages ago. How do you have them, Clereen?!" Knuckles asked as he looked at Clereen, hoping for answers but Clereen didn't have any.

"I don't know" Clereen answered

"You don't know?!" Tails asked in shock

"Oh that's just great!" Amy said with great sarcasm

"What do you mean you don't know?!" Knuckles asked Clereen

"I don't know! I've had them ever since I was young. I don't know where they came from. My dad found them" Clereen admitted

"He did?" Sonic asked with great confusion

"Oh boy" Knuckles said as he turned away, trying to get to grips with what was going on. Everyone else was just as shocked, including Clereen.

"So let me get this straight." Tails started to yell

"Tails, please" Knuckles tried to stop her but she kept going

"So you have been hiding these gems from us ever since you have been here and then it turns out they are NOT the chaos emeralds but actually some sort of previous form of them that isn't even supposed to exist anymore?!" Tails yelled, getting increasingly frustrated

"TAILS!" Knuckles shouted and everyone went quiet. Then it became apparent that Clereen was weeping. She just looked down as poured down her face in buckets.

"This isn't fair. What has Clereen done to deserve this?" Knuckles asked Tails

"That's exactly what I want to know!" Tails said angrily

"Everyone, please. This is all a bit much to take in. Maybe we should all just take a step back first" Anna reasoned.

Knuckles gave a deep sigh "She's right. We need more time to think this over before either of us make any decisions. We have enough going on already." Knuckles agreed.

"But" Tails tried to but in

"Right, Tails?" Knuckles pressured Tails.

Tails sighed deeply just as Knuckles did before "Alright. We can have a meeting first thing tomorrow. Agreed?" Tails said

"Agreed" Knuckles answered

With that, everyone left the room, all except Clereen and Knuckles. Knuckles looked on at Clereen for a while longer before shaking his head with a sigh and leaving the room. Clereen stood there, thinking and sobbing. She did this for a good while before putting the chaos emeralds back in the cupboard and sitting on her bed to think and cry some more.

After a while to calm down but still with tears in her eyes, she realised there was only one option left. She stared at the window to the room in clear view from the bed she sat on. It was wide open and blowing a slightly cool breeze on a sunny day, inviting Clereen to join the outside. Only one option. She couldn't let them know. She couldn't tell them the truth. They already hardly believed the other things she had told them about her past. Why would they believe any more. She was doomed from the start. She should have never let them into her life. Into her mind. Into her heart.

Clereen fetched some spare note paper from a drawer and started to write and then left it sitting on the bed. Then Clereen wandered slowly to the window and cried as she turned around and looked at her room for the last time. She thought about how much she would miss them and how much they had done for her but it was no use thinking about those things now. This life was over. It was time for another. Clereen then jumped out the window and flew away into the distance.

Everyone left her in peace for a while before trying to call her out of the room for the meeting later that night. Tails volunteered to see her herself and knocked on the door carefully.

"Clereen? You there?" Tails heard no answer

"I'm sorry, Clereen. We all are. I think...No! I know, I put too much pressure on you. Let's just talk and figure this out...please..." Tails said gently through the door but still heard no response. Tails just stared at the floor for a while and closed her eyes before then quietly going to see Knuckles to help. Knuckles tried his usual tricks to coach her out but to no success.

"Come on, Clereen. I know the last few weeks have been hard and you are a growing woman. Things are going to be difficult for you but you just need to talk to us and as long as you're honest I'm sure we can sort this out...Clereen...Please..." Knuckles said but still to no response. Eventually, Knuckles and Tails agreed to knock the door down and interrupt her in whatever she was doing as this was important for her even if she didn't want to do it.

Knuckles bashed down the door with his shoulder only to find an empty room with an open window blowing the curtains around the room like butterfly wings. Knuckles was first to see the note and the door with Tails close behind.

"oh no" Knuckles said under his breath as he went inspect the window and look out in hopes he wasn't too late. However, it became clear he was when he heard the tears of Tails behind him.

Tails was holding the note in her hands as tears streamed down her face as waterfalls of her shame. Tails couldn't take it anymore and sobbed her heart out as she handed the note to Knuckles and he began to read.

"There are so many things I want to explain. So many things you could never understand. But I just don't have the words to tell you. I would never expect you to believe me and it would only end in tears. There are so many things you have done for me that I will never be able to pay you back for. I'm sorry. Goodbye"

Knuckles stared at the note for a good while in silence and nothing but the sound of Tails' tears echoed around the room. Sonic came running up the stairs and was about to tell them something but his face fell when he saw Tails' face full of tears like he had never seen before. This was not the Tails he knew at all.

"GUYS! Eggman has told us to come to the local football stadium or else! We got to go!" Amy cried soon after Sonic, desperate to rush off in the opposite direction as soon as they came forward.

Tails and Knuckles didn't have any time to grieve. There was no time to lose. Eggman could cause some severe damage if he wanted so they had no choice. Tails and the others got into the Tornado mark 2 and rushed off to the stadium and one seat was empty.

Tails, Knuckles and the others arrived very quickly but they didn't see Eggman on entry. Something was clearly wrong but they couldn't ignore a threat no matter what it entailed. They were ready to escape at the drop of a hat but what they didn't expect was what lay beneath them. A large round dome came out of the floor and trapped everyone inside. Eggman soon came out of the shadows laughing his usual laugh. It was a trap!

"Hello everyone. What a pleasure to meet you" he cackled before bellowing with laughter once more

"Oh, please!" Amy cried in disgust of his sense of humour

"At least we still have the tornado, right?" Sonic said, trying to keep the mood up but soon after saying it Eggman threw an explosive device out of his flying machine and, in one great explosion, blew the tornado mark 2 into pieces.

"Honestly, Sonic. Sometimes you really should just keep your mouth shut!" Tails yelled with anger as Sonic cowered under her.

"Now spin and get us out of here!" Tails demanded. Sonic did as he was told but, try as he might, he just couldn't make even a scratch on the dome. Eggman bellowed with great laughter once again.

"That dome is made out of best material there is. It is cut proof, bullet proof and even bomb proof. Resisting is useless!" Eggman said with great pride.

"You might as well give up now!" Eggman cried with pure glee before laughing once more.

Tails gave a deep sigh. "Maybe he is right." She said with a deep sadness. Knuckles found himself almost agreeing with her but then Amy shouted

"What are you talking about?" closely followed by Sonic saying

"There must be some way out of this!" Tails and Knuckles were happy to see their support but they were still doubtful

"But how the fuck are we gonna get out of this thing?!" Knuckles cried with frustration.

Just then, a familiar yellow beam swooped over their heads, narrowly missing roasting their ears and it melted right through the top of the dome. They didn't need any reminded to move as they all jumped out as soon as they could. Tails then turned around and grinned from ear to ear.

"CLEREEN!" she cried as she saw her standing in front of them all. Clereen gave a quick smile but didn't say a word before she quickly changed her focus onto Eggman but Eggman was soon ready as two great metal hands came out of his flying machine. Eggman and Clereen shared glances with fire burning between them. It was clear this battle was meant for no-one else but them and them alone.

"Clereen! NO!" Knuckles tried to yell to her but it was no use.

Her mind was made up and she went for it. Clereen aimed some beams straight at Eggman but his machine was fast and flew ahead of the beam. Eggman took this opportunity to fire missiles at her which she was easily able to avoid with her lightning quick speed across the chairs and walls of the stadium. Clereen decided to use a different tactic and pushed off the railings towards Eggman but she had to fly backwards as Eggman threw a metal hand at her.

"Clereen, stop! You don't have to do this!" Knuckles yelled to her as he tried to put his hand on her shoulder but she shoved his hand away. Then she turned to him and smiled.

"Yes I do" she said before flying into the air to avoid another strike from Eggman's metal arm.

Then Clereen surprised Eggman by jumping onto his face and then behind him. Eggman's machine wasn't fast enough to turn around before Clereen used her beams to melt the hands off the arms. She landed on his see-through screen looking straight at him and pushed her hand against the screen at his eye level. Eggman tried to fling his arm at her but she used her ability to force the arms away from her with one arm as she charged the beam into Eggman's face with another.

"What are doing?! Clereen! STOP!" Tails cried and Clereen stopped for a minute to look at Tails but this gave Eggman the opportunity to use a surge of electricity from the machines base to zap Clereen. Clereen's muscles spasmed and she fell to the floor.

"Clereen!" Knuckles cried and him and Tails both tried to to reach her to help but she wasn't willing to give up. It was difficult and painful but she forced herself back to her feet to face him once again.

"Look at you! Pathetic! Face it, you brown mutt! You can't beat me! It's no wonder you're farther abandoned you!" Eggman taunted

"He didn't abandon me! He loved me and protected me all his life and he would still be here if it wasn't for the other scientist!" Clereen yelled in protest

"Is that really what you tell yourself? The other scientist? Do you even know who they were? Do you even know what work your farther did?!" Eggman replied

"All I know is that he was a good man and he made me. He didn't deserve what happened to him! He loved me and that's all I need to know!" Clereen protested further as she stood stronger than ever before.

"Ever heard of project 427?" Eggman said with a strange calmness as if asking a genuine question

"You're tricks won't work on me!" Clereen said with confidence and suspicion

"Oh my god! You mean you don't know?!" Eggman said in a sarcastically nice tone as if having a casual conversation about the latest news

"What I don't know doesn't matter to me!" Clereen cried

"What if I told you, that scientist you call farther was Dr Ivo Robotnik." Eggman stared at him, confused as to what he meant

"In other words, my farther!" Eggman cried with a loud sense of meaning.

Clereen's face grew pale. "no no. You're lying! Y-you y-y-y-you must be LYING!" Clereen cried but she just couldn't completely convince herself

"What? Did you never think it was strange how he never let you see anyone? How he lived in seclusion on the edge of a large forest in the middle of nowhere?! Did it never occur to you why you never saw your mother?!" Eggman yelled with increasing passion and strength as he saw Clereen crumbling in front of him.

Clereen just stood there, her heart broken. Her farther, the one who brought this evil man to the world?! But how? Why? Surely this was some kind of mistake! It must be! It can't be true! It can't be true! Clereen's eyes welled up tears without her even realising and the voices of her friends were drowned in the questions of her own mind.

"And you weren't the first" Eggman continued

"What?" Clereen said, now weak with confusion

"You were one of many experiments! You meant nothing to him! The only reason he kept you happy or even fed you was for his own gain. For science! You meant nothing! You are nothing! Nothing!" Eggman cried louder and louder

"NO! NO! NO!" Clereen tried to put her hands over her ears but it didn't silence the voice in her head.

'you mean nothing'

'Nothing'

'Nothing'

'Nothing'

'a clone!'

'a fake!'

'spawn of evil!'

"Clereen...don't listen to him! It's not true!" Tails tried to cry to her. Clereen just turned with tears in her eyes.

"No Tails...it's true..." she eventually said

"What?" Tails said with more confusion than anger

"You don't know that, Clereen!" Knuckles yelled in desperation

"I was created through DNA in a science lab. It's all I have ever known" she said as tears poured down her face and glistened in the moonlight

"I was afraid to tell you because I thought you would believe I was a spy for him" Then Clereen looked up and smiled

"Heh, funny...life used to be so simple then. I didn't have a care in the world and all this time I was hoping it wasn't really true so I could feel OK with my lies but in the end I was only running away from the truth. Wasn't I?" Clereen said as she seemed to be more calm and adjusted than she had ever been. Knuckles saw her standing there and for the first time. He didn't see the little silly girl he had been protecting but the woman she had become.

"NO!" Knuckles cried in a desperate attempt to make this stop but, in the end, he was telling himself more than Clereen. Just then Eggman came from behind and fried Clereen in a burst of electricity till smoke spewed from her skin.

"NO! STOP! PLEASE STOP!" Knuckles cried and Eggman eventually let go and Clereen flopped to the ground limp as a dead fish.

Knuckles ran forward to see barely any resemblance left of the girl he knew and yet he could still see the sparkle in her eyes he knew so well. Knuckles started to sob his heart out as he saw her chest stretching as she gasped for breath.

"It's OK, Clereen. We'll get you home. You will be fine. We'll fix you up. You will be fine!" Knuckles cried as he lifted her off the ground. Clereen gasped for air as if she was a hundred years old and her lungs full of ashes. Just then, a weak voice responded.

"No, Knuckles. I have no home" Clereen said with some of the last of her breath

"Yes you do!" Knuckles yelled at her as his voice shook

"It's OK Knuckles" Clereen said as her hand touched his arm

"I'm going to see the professor. I'm going where people love me for who I am" Clereen said as her voice grew weaker

"I LOVE YOU!" Knuckles cried with all his heart. The others stood around and watched in horror. None of them knowing what to say. There was an awkward silence as there was no response before he cried again.

"I FUCKING LOVE YOU, CLEREEN! DON'T YOU FUCKING DIE ON ME!" He cried even louder than before

"I love you to" Clereen said as she gave a faint smile before frowning

"I'm tired Knuckles" she said as her eyes grew heavy

"DON'T SLEEP, CLEREEN! Don't sleep..." Knuckles tried to say but he got quieter as he didn't even believe his own words

"I'm coming professor" she said as her eyes closed and she lay as if falling asleep like every other day.

"CLEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Knuckles screamed before sobbing onto her chest but it was no use. She was gone. The others just stood and cried in a circle of ceremony around her and nothing but the sounds of sorrow echoed around the empty open walls of the stadium.


End file.
